GSK advises UK govt. to start bird flu vaccination

After signing a deal about a countrywide vaccination against an eruption of pandemic bird flu with Singapore, GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK), a British healthcare company is now in talks with UK government for a similar deal, according to media reports published on Monday.

Chief Executive Officer of GSK, Jean-Pierre Garnier reportedly met Prime Minister Tony Blair and Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown this month to discuss the possibility of stockpiling tens of millions of doses of the firm's new H5N1 vaccine that drug manufacturer has developed to combat the bird flu virus.

The research-based pharmaceutical company has also finalized the similar deals with Switzerland and Singapore and is close to entering into a deal with France, the media report claimed.

The firm has also offered recommendations to the U.S. government to start a mass vaccination programme, but no decision has been taken yet.

Headquartered in the London, UK GSK is the only pharmaceutical company to tackle the World Health Organization’s three ‘priority’ diseases – HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. GSK is one of the industry leaders, with an estimated seven per cent of the world's pharmaceutical market.

GSK’s vaccine has not yet secured regulatory node but the company expects to file for approval with the European Medicines Agency by the end of the current year.

Meanwhile, the British Government is considering its options but perhaps is more concerned about the cost of vaccination for the mass population of about 60 million. Besides, there are concerns about the effectiveness of the vaccine. The vaccine has been shown to provide protection against the H5N1 avian flu virus but whether it is potential against a possible new, mutant strain, is not known.

The UK’ government is also thought to have consulted vaccination with US’s Baxter Pharmaceuticals, which has produced a rival vaccine.

The British Department of Health said, “Pre-pandemic vaccines are one of a number of options we are considering. We already have a stockpile of 14.6 million treatment courses of antivirals, and we are stockpiling around 3.5 million doses of H5N1 vaccines. However, we continue to review our planning options, including pre-pandemic vaccines.

“We continue discussions with manufacturers on their vaccine development plans, but we cannot comment on discussions with specific companies,” the department added.

The Public Health department of Switzerland has already placed order of 8 million doses of the vaccine to take care of its entire population in the event of an influenza pandemic, which many experts fear may be sparked by bird flu.

The World Health Organization, which is coordinating the global response to human cases of H5N1 avian influenza and monitoring the corresponding threat of an influenza pandemic, gave warning this month that global production capacity for seasonal flu vaccine stands at 350 million doses, which is inadequate for the expected demand in a pandemic, while there would probably be calls to vaccinate the whole 6.7 billion world population.