Like Tamiflu, the Relenza supply has been outstripped by demand. Garnier, who recently met with President Bush to discuss vaccine production, said that he also met with a top health official from a country he would not name who offered to buy his entire supply "within two minutes" of the start of the meeting.
"Once I mentioned how much Relenza I was going to [manufacture] in '05, he said, 'I'll buy it all,'" said Garnier, who would not provide specifics of Relenza's capacity. Garnier also said that some governments have offered GlaxoSmithKline fees to reserve capacities of bird flu drugs that haven't been manufactured yet.
Vaccines are considered by many analysts and health officials to be more effective than anti-virals, because they could prevent a pandemic before it happens. There are no FDA-approved bird flu vaccines available, though the U.S. government has said it would sidestep the usual regulatory requirements to stockpile a drug that could prevent an outbreak, be it from bird flu or bioterrorism.
Out of the $3.9 billion allotted for anti-pandemic stockpiles, the U.S. government paid $97 million to French drug maker Sanofi-Aventis (up $0.05 to $39.54, Research) to ramp up manufacturing capacity for its experimental bird flu vaccine. This is the largest contract issued by the U.S. government for a bird flu vaccine, but not the most recent. On Thursday, the government awarded Chiron Corp. (up $0.82 to $43.48, Research) a $62.5 million contract to develop a bird flu vaccine, according to a company statement.
For more than 30 years, vaccines have been produced inside chicken eggs. GlaxoSmithKline and other companies are researching ways to avoid the lengthy egg process by growing vaccines in cell-based or tissue-based cultures. However, Garnier said he was "cynical" about reaching landmark developments in tissue-based vaccine production.
"Egg-based technology is not going to be obsolete for the next few years," said Garnier. "We're talking years before tissue cells take over cell-based technology, in my opinion."
To read about a biotech that is breeding chickens to lay drug-laced eggs, click here.
BTA Price at posting:
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