Washington Business Journal: "MedImmune said it's already produced enough bulk vaccine to fill those HHS orders -- the company has said it has the capacity to produce 200 million doses -- and it said the FDA has already begun releasing its first 3.4 million doses of its FluMist-based product" (Sinha, 9/21).
New York Times Examines U.S. Officials' Decision Not To Use Adjuvants
The New York Times examines U.S. health officials's decision not to stretch the H1N1 vaccine supply with adjuvants, even though it could mean increasing the access of developing nations to supplies. "We have always argued that using adjuvanted vaccine would leave more vaccine for poor people," Marie-Paule Kieny, director of the WHO Initiative for Vaccine Research. "Wealthy nations have contracted for much of the expected pandemic vaccine production, leaving little for poorer countries," the newspaper writes. "But while Canada and some European nations will use vaccines containing adjuvants, American officials have decided against it for now. They say that they have enough vaccine and that the safety of the additives has not been proved" (Pollack, 9/21).
This article is republished with kind permission from our friends at The Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery of in-depth coverage of health policy developments, debates and discussions. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for Kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. 2009 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.