U.S. wants vaccine for 20 million 'key' people produced

Saturday, May 23, 2009 3:05 AM
BY DAVID BROWN AND ROB STEIN
THE WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON -- The federal government has asked three drug companies to make enough swine flu vaccine to immunize at least 20 million people in key positions in health care, national security and emergency services, officials said yesterday.

The order, announced by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, is part of a $1 billion investment in immediate production and testing of vaccine against the newly emerged strain of H1N1 flu virus. Further orders for potentially hundreds of millions of doses of vaccine are expected.

Also yesterday, CDC scientists unveiled the most detailed genetic examination yet of the novel virus, finding that the new swine flu might have been circulating undetected in pigs for years.

That report, in the journal Science, still doesn't solve the bigger mystery of when and where the virus made the jump to people and what genetic change allowed it to start spreading so rapidly. The virus was first detected last month, and at least 42 countries now have confirmed it in more than 11,000 people. At least 85 people have died of it.

The order is for bulk quantities of a killed version of the virus and two different "adjuvants," chemical additives that boost the immune system's response and allow a lower dose of vaccine to be used, which in turn stretches the supply.

A useable vaccine would not be ready until late summer. Special permission from the Food and Drug Administration will be needed for the adjuvants to be used.

The government's pandemic preparedness plan divides the U.S. population into five tiers of priority for getting vaccine. The first tier, which comprises about 24 million people, includes deployed armed forces, critical health-care workers, fire, police and ambulance workers, pregnant women and small children.

Also yesterday, an official of the World Health Organization said that agency is reviewing its pandemic threat alert system to see whether its definition of a full-scale pandemic should be revised.