AlaskaDenise
In Memoriam
<TABLE class=headerTable cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=* border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>Aug 30 2007
</TD></TR><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=2>by Tony McDonough, Liverpool Daily Post
</TD></TR></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=400 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=3> </TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=3>DRUGS giant Novartis is supplying 40m doses of its Liverpool-produced flu vaccine Fluvirin to the US ? 10m more than they delivered last year.
The figure is just 8m short of the number of vaccines the factory was about to dispatch back in 2004 when a contamination crisis at the Speke plant forced it to scrap the entire shipment.
The factory, which employs around 800 people, was then owned by California-based Chiron Vaccines.
Authorities in the UK temporarily suspended its production licence and the company embarked on a huge clean-up effort costing tens of millions of pounds.
The plant regained its licence in 2005 but was only able to supply 14m doses of Fluvirin to the US for the 2005/06 flu season
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
In April, 2006, Chiron shareholders approved a ?2.3bn takeover of the company by Swiss-based Novartis.
At least 20m of the current batch of doses are planned for delivery by the end of next month, with all doses expected to be delivered by the end of October.
The first lots of Fluvirin vaccine were released on August 8 by the US Food and Drug Administration, making it the first trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine available for the 2007/08 season.
?For the second year in a row, Novartis has delivered a substantial amount of influenza vaccine to the US market in early August to facilitate early vaccinations, particularly of high-risk population,? said Rajiv De Silva, president of Novartis Vaccines in the US.
More than 200m people in the US are considered to be in groups recommended to get an influenza vaccination annually.
Experts at the Speke site are also at the forefront of efforts to produce vaccines against the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain.
In November, Novartis signed a ?20m deal with the US government to supply 800,000 doses of a ?pre-pandemic? vaccine which it is hoped would give some protection to human being against the virus.
However, H5N1 doesn?t yet appear to have mutated into a form easily transmissible between humans and until that happens, an effective vaccine could not be developed.
tonymcdonough
http://iccheshireonline.icnetwork.c...objectid=19706604&siteid=50061-name_page.html
</TD></TR><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=2>by Tony McDonough, Liverpool Daily Post
</TD></TR></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=400 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=3> </TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=3>DRUGS giant Novartis is supplying 40m doses of its Liverpool-produced flu vaccine Fluvirin to the US ? 10m more than they delivered last year.
The figure is just 8m short of the number of vaccines the factory was about to dispatch back in 2004 when a contamination crisis at the Speke plant forced it to scrap the entire shipment.
The factory, which employs around 800 people, was then owned by California-based Chiron Vaccines.
Authorities in the UK temporarily suspended its production licence and the company embarked on a huge clean-up effort costing tens of millions of pounds.
The plant regained its licence in 2005 but was only able to supply 14m doses of Fluvirin to the US for the 2005/06 flu season
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
In April, 2006, Chiron shareholders approved a ?2.3bn takeover of the company by Swiss-based Novartis.
At least 20m of the current batch of doses are planned for delivery by the end of next month, with all doses expected to be delivered by the end of October.
The first lots of Fluvirin vaccine were released on August 8 by the US Food and Drug Administration, making it the first trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine available for the 2007/08 season.
?For the second year in a row, Novartis has delivered a substantial amount of influenza vaccine to the US market in early August to facilitate early vaccinations, particularly of high-risk population,? said Rajiv De Silva, president of Novartis Vaccines in the US.
More than 200m people in the US are considered to be in groups recommended to get an influenza vaccination annually.
Experts at the Speke site are also at the forefront of efforts to produce vaccines against the deadly H5N1 bird flu strain.
In November, Novartis signed a ?20m deal with the US government to supply 800,000 doses of a ?pre-pandemic? vaccine which it is hoped would give some protection to human being against the virus.
However, H5N1 doesn?t yet appear to have mutated into a form easily transmissible between humans and until that happens, an effective vaccine could not be developed.
tonymcdonough
http://iccheshireonline.icnetwork.c...objectid=19706604&siteid=50061-name_page.html