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news.Sanofi Pasteur, Sanofi-Aventis' vaccine business, has delivered more than 8,000 doses of an investigational vaccine to protect against an influenza strain that public health experts believe could precipitate a global pandemic.
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According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there have been 55 cases with 42 laboratory-confirmed deaths from the H5N1 avian influenza virus between January 28, 2004 and February 2, 2005.
The investigational doses of the vaccine were shipped on March 2 and 3 to the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), for NIAID clinical trials.
“The production of the 8,000 investigational doses is one of Sanofi Pasteur’s several initiatives that support efforts by governments and global organizations to prepare for an influenza pandemic,” said Michel DeWilde, executive vice-president of R&D at Sanofi Pasteur.
According to the WHO, the next pandemic is likely to result in one to 2.3 million hospitalizations and 280,000 to 650,000 deaths in industrialized nations alone.