Sanofi-Aventis to donate 100m influenza vaccines

Sanofi-Aventis intends to donate 100 million doses of influenza vaccine to the World Health Organization (WHO) to help people in developing countries, it has declared.

During the opening session of the Pacific Health Summit, chief executive of the company Christopher A Viehbacher remarked the whole industry has a collective responsibility to assist patients across the globe during the current pandemic.

He added the flexible donation of preventative medication is to help the body address the needs of the most vulnerable populations.

Once production begins, ten per cent of the business’ A(H1N1) vaccines will be put to one side to go to communities in developing locations.

Mr Viehbacher asserted the future of the sector is linked to healthcare solutions that can be found for emerging countries.

“By pooling our collective strengths, as well as our dedication and our motivation, we can save millions of lives,” he stated.

WHO has declared the influenza A(H1N1) infection is at pandemic level six. As of June 15th at 17:00 BST, there were 35,928 cases of the illness ? including 163 deaths ? across 76 countries.