Weathering the Influenza Vaccine Crisis

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Contamination problems in their British manufacturing facility at Speke, Liverpool, recently forced the Chiron Corporation of San Francisco, one of only two companies licensed to provide inactivated influenza vaccine in the United States, to withdraw their vaccine (Fluvirin) from the market. Currently, it appears that about 54 million doses of inactivated vaccine (Fluzone) will be available from the remaining manufacturer, Aventis, with another 1.1 million doses of intranasal live influenza vaccine (FluMist) available from MedImmune for use in healthy people 5 to 49 years of age. This represents about half the amount of vaccine expected for the 2004 vaccination campaign — enough to vaccinate approximately one third of the persons to whom the vaccine is usually targeted. Unsettling reports of price gouging by suppliers are already beginning to circulate in the public media.