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Novartis factory leads fight against deadly flu
Oct 23 2008 by Tony McDonough, Liverpool Daily Post
UNITED States public health officials have taken delivery of the first batch of a Liverpool-produced vaccine against a deadly strain of bird flu.
For the past two years, the Novartis factory, in Speke, has been work- ing to produce a vaccine that it is hoped will offer some protection against an H5N1 bird flu pandemic.
The highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus is endemic in poultry in parts of Asia, but experts fear it will mutate into a form easily passed from human to human, sparking a pandemic similar to three others in the past century.
Yesterday, the United Nations and World Bank reported that international efforts have pushed back the spread of bird flu, but the threat of the virus mutating remained a real one.
Since late 2003, there have been 387 cases of humans catching the disease from birds, of whom 245 have died in Asia, Africa and Europe. There have been only 36 human cases this year,
of which 28 proved fatal.
The report added H5N1 was still ?actively circulating among poultry in a number of hotspots? and was entrenched in Indonesia and Egypt.
It called for continued vigilance and investment worldwide to combat the disease, saying ?the threat of an influenza pandemic remains unchanged?.
The vaccine produced by Novartis will offer protection against the avian form of the virus. No vaccine against a human form can be developed until such a virus actually appears.
The initial delivery to the US of the H5N1 vaccine has boosted net sales at Novartis? vaccines division by 20% to $1.3bn.
Around 33m doses of Novartis?s conventional flu vaccine, Fluvirin, have also been shipped so far this year from the Liverpool factory, which employs 800 people.
Last year, the plant produced 50m doses and, with another year to go, that figure could still be surpassed.:tiphat:http://www.ldpbusiness.co.uk/liverp...eads-fight-against-deadly-flu-96026-22098139/
Oct 23 2008 by Tony McDonough, Liverpool Daily Post
UNITED States public health officials have taken delivery of the first batch of a Liverpool-produced vaccine against a deadly strain of bird flu.
For the past two years, the Novartis factory, in Speke, has been work- ing to produce a vaccine that it is hoped will offer some protection against an H5N1 bird flu pandemic.
The highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu virus is endemic in poultry in parts of Asia, but experts fear it will mutate into a form easily passed from human to human, sparking a pandemic similar to three others in the past century.
Yesterday, the United Nations and World Bank reported that international efforts have pushed back the spread of bird flu, but the threat of the virus mutating remained a real one.
Since late 2003, there have been 387 cases of humans catching the disease from birds, of whom 245 have died in Asia, Africa and Europe. There have been only 36 human cases this year,
of which 28 proved fatal.The report added H5N1 was still ?actively circulating among poultry in a number of hotspots? and was entrenched in Indonesia and Egypt.
It called for continued vigilance and investment worldwide to combat the disease, saying ?the threat of an influenza pandemic remains unchanged?.
The vaccine produced by Novartis will offer protection against the avian form of the virus. No vaccine against a human form can be developed until such a virus actually appears.
The initial delivery to the US of the H5N1 vaccine has boosted net sales at Novartis? vaccines division by 20% to $1.3bn.
Around 33m doses of Novartis?s conventional flu vaccine, Fluvirin, have also been shipped so far this year from the Liverpool factory, which employs 800 people.
Last year, the plant produced 50m doses and, with another year to go, that figure could still be surpassed.:tiphat:http://www.ldpbusiness.co.uk/liverp...eads-fight-against-deadly-flu-96026-22098139/
