The contracts cover the next three years until 2009, with the awarded amount growing over those three years.
Following a WHO prequalification in September 2006 the combination vaccine was made available to supranational purchasing organizations. Supranational organizations are major customers for combination vaccines, which are used in large vaccination programs in developing countries.
Quinvaxem, a fully-liquid pentavalent vaccine for children, was co-developed with Novartis. The vaccine combines antigens for protection against five important childhood diseases including diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, hepatitis B and haemophilus influenzae type b, one of the leading causes of bacterial meningitis and pneumonia in children.
The Hepavax-Gene, recombinant hepatitis B vaccine, is one of the WHO’s pre-qualified vaccines for active immunization against the hepatitis B virus. Young children infected with hepatitis B are the most likely to develop chronic infections.