Sanofi Pasteur responds to yellow fever epidemic

Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines unit of Sanofi-Aventis, has announced its response to the yellow fever epidemic taking place in Latin America.

The company reports that it has shipped six million doses of its Stamaril yellow fever vaccine following requests from Unicef for responses to the epidemic.

In total, four million of these doses were received by Brazil earlier this month, while an additional two million doses were sent to Paraguay last weekend following requests made by health authorities.

Wayne Pisano, president and chief executive officer of Sanofi Pasteur, said: “Sanofi Pasteur mobilised its teams to make this public health emergency a priority.

“This ability to respond to an emergency in record time illustrates the company’s commitment to global health.”

The company notes that the Stamaril provided to Brazil and Paraguay is part of the Unicef vaccine stockpile that is reserved for use in response to outbreaks of the disease, with Sanofi Pasteur presently the sole vaccine supplier to the organisation for yellow fever.

Sanofi Aventis has provided 200 million doses to 150 countries in the past two decades.

In May 2007, Sanofi Pasteur announced the launch of a website to give holidaymakers information regarding travel-related infectious diseases and available immunisation programmes.