Chiron and Baxter seal deal on bird flu vaccine with UK, files ‘mock up’ with EMEA

As governments scramble to stockpile vaccines, pharmaceuticals firms around the world are preparing to produce products to fight off the disease.

Chiron Corporation announced on Friday that it has struck a supply agreement with the British government to supply pre-pandemic avian influenza vaccines, based on the virulent H5N1 strain. The treatment will be manufactured between the seasonal influenza campaigns.

It added in a statement it would finish “these activities in time for the seasonal influenza vaccine production to avoid interruption of the normal manufacturing cycle.”

The deal complements measures already taken by the government, which is also stockpiling almost 15 million doses of the anti-influenza treatment Tamiflu ? although the effectiveness of the drug against avian influenza remains uncertain.

In a similar announcement Baxter International announced today that its European subsidiary has received a contract from the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom to produce a stockpile of two million doses of candidate H5N1 influenza vaccine based on an avian strain. Under the agreement, Baxter will complete delivery of the stockpile to the NHS in 2006.

Meanwhile, Chiron has filed a “core dossier” submission to the European medicines body the EMEA for a pandemic vaccine. It is the second such dossier to be handed to the EMEA.

While bird flu has yet to jump from birds to humans, the filing allows the firm to speed up the approval process before a virus is identified. Once the pandemic has begun, then the vaccine can be resubmitted.

© Adfero Ltd