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news.US vaccine maker Chiron Corporation has said that it will be unable to meet demand for its Begrivac flu vaccine following the discovery of safety issues with its manufacturing facility in Marburg, Germany.
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Chiron has now reduced its supply expectations for Begrivac for the 2005-2006 influenza season by approximately eight million doses and may delay shipments until early October. The biotech had originally expected to supply approximately 12 million doses of Begrivac vaccine to non-US markets.
Chiron said that it was currently working with German regulators to ascertain the extent of the contamination risk. The company stated that it did not expect to record any sales of Begrivac vaccine in the third quarter of 2005.
The safety concerns surrounding its Marburg plant is the latest setback for Chiron which last year failed to provide nearly half the US’s supply of flu vaccine after regulators found contamination problems at its plant in Liverpool, England.
The US biotech firm is now awaiting the outcome of an FDA inspection into its Liverpool facility, in the wake last year’s production suspension. If the FDA gives the green light to the Liverpool plant, Chiron expects to produce 18 to 26 million doses of Fluvirin vaccine for the 2005-2006 influenza season, with the vast majority of the supply going to the US market.