US government awards bird flu contracts

Three large pharmaceutical firms – GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis and Sanofi Pasteur – have been awarded the contracts. The companies will manufacture 5.3 million 90-microgram doses of vaccine designed to protect against the H5N1 influenza virus strain.

The three awards include a $117.9 million contract to Sanofi Pasteur for 3.7 million doses, a $40.95 million contract to Novartis for 800,000 doses and a $40.6 million to GlaxoSmithKline for 800,000 doses.

The vaccines will be formulated to immunize against a new form of the virus that has mutated in recent months.

Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccine business owned by Sanofi-Aventis, is manufacturing the largest stockpile to protect from a strain of the virus called clade 2. Its previous stockpile contracts covered the clade 1 form of H5N1.

Manufacturing and stockpiling more than one clade of H5N1 vaccine is of strategic importance because circulating H5N1 influenza strains are mutating and diverging into distinct antigenic groups, Sanofi Pasteur said in a statement.

These newest vaccine purchases supplement the existing stockpile of 5.9 million doses of H5N1 vaccine and build on the department's plans to buy enough vaccine for 20 million people.

“Having a stockpile of influenza vaccine that may offer protection against the H5N1 virus is an important part of our pandemic influenza preparedness plan,” secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt said.

Earlier this year, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a $1 billion investment to support the advanced development of cell-based production technologies for influenza vaccines.