WASHINGTON, April 3 (UPI) -- The United States still cannot make enough vaccine to combat an avian-flu pandemic, a top expert says.
"We have a long way to go," Dr. Bruce Gellin, director of the National Vaccine Program Office at the Health and Human Services Department told National Journal.
"Global influenza vaccine manufacturing capacity is limited, and we currently have only a single manufacturer -- Sanofi -- that produces all components of influenza vaccine entirely within our borders," Gellin said in an interview published Friday.
"In a pandemic, vaccine will be in short supply everywhere, and we can't assume that vaccine produced elsewhere will be delivered here," he said. "There are other vaccine production facilities within the United States, but influenza vaccine manufacturing uses dedicated facilities."
"A pandemic will be caused by a virus that we've not experienced before," Gellin said. Therefore, "a pandemic vaccine is likely to be a much higher dose to achieve the immune response needed for protection," he said. "In studies that (the National Institutes of Health) conducted last year, we were sobered to learn that the vaccine dose was six times higher than what is in our seasonal flu shot and that two doses were required."
"We estimate that if we were to ask Sanofi to dedicate their facilities entirely to H5N1 vaccine, they could produce approximately 30 million to 40 million doses of H5N1 vaccine in a year," Gellin said. "At two doses per person, we could vaccinate only 15 million to 20 million Americans in a year. Of course, this would also mean that the company would have to stop making next year's flu vaccine in order to do this."
