NZ undecided on whether to pick up its share of Aust flu vaccine

[Sally Furniss]

NZ undecided on whether to pick up its share of Aust flu vaccine
Sat, 13 Jun 2009 7:50a.m.

Health officials are still thinking about whether the pandemic declared yesterday by the World Health Organisation (WHO) means they should order eight million doses of vaccine from Australian manufacturer, CSL Ltd.

"The use of a vaccine is still being considered," Steve Brazier, the Ministry of Health's national incident controller, told NZPA.

Though the present form of the A H1N1 swine flu is spreading rapidly in populations where there is community transmission, symptoms have been reported to be no worse than seasonal flu in most cases.

The ministry must decide whether to use vaccine to protect particularly vulnerable people expected to fall ill, or wait in case the swine flu virus later changes to a more virulent form, or one resistant to the Tamiflu anti-viral drug.

The Australian government has already ordered vaccine supplies for 10 million people. Normally CSL would conduct trials over six months to decide the best dosage and seek regulatory approval, but a company spokeswoman, Rachel David, said the Australian government may allow vaccinations to start earlier if the pandemic worsens.

On this side of the Tasman, officials have not made a decision, despite the ministry having taken an option to purchase up to eight million doses of vaccine from CSL.

Director of public health Mark Jacobs announced in 2005 that the nation had been "guaranteed" a vaccine against pandemic influenza.

"We have a formal arrangement with Australia's CSL Ltd.. .which gives us a guaranteed supply if we need a pandemic vaccine," he said.

New Zealand expected to get access to a vaccine within four to six months of the WHO declaring the existence of a pandemic, he said.

The nation is third on the priority list for CSL - after Australia and a small country which put in its order before NZ.

When the WHO recently suggested affluent countries might like to share their pre-ordered vaccine with poor nations, Mr Brazier told NZPA: "New Zealand has a vaccine supplier because we organised one many years ago".

Last night, Mr Brazier said: "the ministry will hold discussions with disease epidemiologists and vaccine experts before making any decisions".

But deputy director of public health, Darren Hunt said he didn't think the vaccine would be available until after winter.

And when Dr Hunt was asked what would trigger the legal step of the Government issuing an "Epidemic Notice" - a move which will automatically give medical officers of health special powers - he told NZPA that "due consideration" was on the basis of what was happening in New Zealand, rather than globally.

"We do not have an epidemic in New Zealand at present," he said.

The number of confirmed cases of swine flu in New Zealand was last night 35, after eight new cases of swine flu were confirmed in one day.

There are 25 probable cases of swine flu, up from 10 the previous day.

All of the new cases are reported as having mild symptoms, but Health Minister Tony Ryall has said it is inevitable that swine flu will spread, possibly hitting up to a third of the population.

"Numbers are going to continue to rise," he said.

"The upper level is of course you might end up with 20 or 30 percent of the population with swine flu, but we don't know".

http://www.3news.co.nz/News/NZ-unde...rticleID/108441/Default.aspx?ArticleID=108441

 

[Snicklefritz]

Re: NZ undecided on whether to pick up its share of Aust flu vaccine

NZ will keep flu vaccine priority despite WHO request - official
1:12PM Friday May 08, 2009
By Kent Atkinson

Swine Flu
NZ undecided on flu vaccine
Waiting list for Tamiflu

The World Health Organisation is asking countries such as New Zealand which have pre-ordered shipments of pandemic flu vaccine to share them with under-developed nations.

But a senior New Zealand health official today signalled that the country will hang onto its priority placing in the queue for any vaccine, though it will share with Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau.

New Zealand's director of public health, Mark Jacobs, announced in 2005 that the nation has been "guaranteed" a vaccine against pandemic influenza, through a formal agreement with an Australian manufacturer.

"We have a formal arrangement with Australia's CSL Ltd - the only influenza vaccine manufacturer in the Southern Hemisphere - which gives us a guaranteed supply if we need a pandemic vaccine," he said.

New Zealand expected to get access to a pandemic vaccine within four to six months of the World Health Organisation declaring the existence of a pandemic.

New Zealand is third on the priority list for CSL - after Australia and a small country which put in its order before NZ - and has a contract for supply of eight million doses so that each person can have two doses.

Health Minister Tony Ryall was asked what stance the Government will take to sharing that vaccine, but referred the question to the MOH.

But Steve Brazier, the ministry's national coordinator of emergency planning, said assisting other countries to purchase vaccine "after our order has been filled" is a bigger question than New Zealand can answer by itself.

"The priority of the Ministry of Health is and always will be the health and well-being of New Zealanders," he said.

"In the event that this strain mutates and becomes more virulent, a vaccine can help contain the spread, save lives, reduce the economic and social impact of a pandemic, and get the country re-started faster.

"New Zealand has a vaccine supplier because we organised one many years ago".

Mr Brazier said New Zealand's small population meant that any action it took itself on vaccines would have only limited effect.

New Zealand had already provided supplies of Tamiflu to the Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau, and information, advice and substantial financial support to strengthen pandemic preparedness across the Pacific region.

Marie-Paule Kieny, director of WHO's Initiative for Vaccine Research, said an expert group will hold a teleconference on May 14 to discuss whether drug companies should switch their production from regular flu vaccine to pandemic vaccine.

WHO expects swine flu to spread to at least one-third of the world's population within the next year and has said a full-fledged pandemic remains possible.

In two weeks, the flu jumped from isolated reports in the USA. and Mexico to confirmed infections in 2371 people in 24 countries, with 44 deaths.

Vaccine producers can only make one kind of flu vaccine at a time: seasonal flu vaccine or pandemic vaccine, and the WHO may tell vaccine makers to switch to making a pandemic one.

But that decision means WHO has to guess whether the world will need pandemic vaccine more than it needs vaccine for regular seasonal flu which flu kills up to 500,000 people a year.

Because production takes months, a decision needs to be made soon, Associated Press reported.

WHO hopes to find out next week how many doses are "locked-in" by those countries, and how much spare capacity manufacturers still have. The world's vaccine producers could turn out between 1 billion and 2 billion doses of pandemic vaccine a year.

- NZPA

(emphasis mine)

Translation: YOYO!
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/health/news/article.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10571211

 

[Sally Furniss]

Re: NZ undecided on whether to pick up its share of Aust flu vaccine

more.

Vaccine may be ready in July

A swine flu vaccine should be available next month, but New Zealand authorities might not take it up.

United States-based Baxter International yesterday said it was in full-scale production of an influenza A (H1N1) vaccine, which could be ready for commercial use next month.

Other drug companies are not expected to deliver a vaccine until at least August.

However, Christchurch virologist Dr Lance Jennings, who is an international expert on the prevention and treatment of influenza, said the first available vaccine would not necessarily be taken up by the Ministry of Health.

"We're going to be well into our outbreak before a commercial vaccine becomes available in New Zealand, so the Ministry of Health may well make the decision to hold off any vaccine purchase until a seasonal vaccine becomes available," he said.

A ministry spokeswoman said no decisions had been made on vaccines.

"The ministry hasn't identified a single provider, and negotiations are continuing with a range of vaccine producers," she said.

Jennings said drug companies faced delays in making vaccines publicly available.
"The rate-limiting step with all vaccine-manufacturing processes is it's easy to produce bulk vaccines but it's then putting it into syringes and labelling it that's the rate-limiting step," he said. "If you're producing hundreds of thousands of doses of a vaccine, that takes time."

The pandemic plan dictated that frontline healthcare workers and other people in essential services would be first in line for a vaccine, he said.
"... the New Zealand ministry does have a forward-purchasing agreement with [Australian drug manufacturer] CSL, and other vaccine manufacturers are talking to the ministry."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/swine-f...flu-takes-hold