Feds buy 375,000 additional flu shots

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- Federal health officials said Monday they have purchased 375,000 additional doses of flu vaccine from a European manufacturer and arranged to purchase 3-million doses of the nasal vaccine FluMist at a reduced price.

"This additional vaccine is being made available as part of our ongoing effort to meet the demand for vaccine due in large part to an early arrival of flu season," Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said in a written statement.

The two major U.S. vaccine manufacturers -- Chiron Corporation of Emeryville, Calif., and Aventis Pasteur of Swiftwater, Pa. -- recently announced they had distributed all 83-million doses they made for this winter's flu season, which health officials expect to be one of the worst in recent years.

The European vaccine, made by Chiron's United Kingdom facility, "is an extra supply of a vaccine already licensed by the FDA and in use in the United States," HHS said in a news release.

The vaccine is currently in bulk packaged form, so the FDA will have to break out in individual lots and test it to ensure its safety, HHS spokesman Bill Pierce told United Press International. "It is the same vaccine that is used in this country" and it should be available by early January, Pierce said.

The 3-million doses of FluMist, manufactured by MedImmune of Gaithersburg, Md., are available immediately, but this vaccine can only be used in healthy people ages 5-49. However, additional doses of the nasal vaccine may help supplement the dwindling supply of shots and allow any remaining stock of the needle-based inoculations to be used in those most at risk of flu complications, including the elderly, the chronically ill, pregnant women and infants.

HHS negotiated a contract with MedImmune to allow "any state or local government ... to purchase FluMist at a price of $20 per dose," Pierce said. This is more than half off the regular price of $46.

"We know there is interest in many states" for the FluMist, Pierce added.

The Chiron vaccine will be distributed to the states based on population, similar to the system HHS employed to begin doling out 250,000 doses of vaccine it purchased from Aventis last week.

HHS is continuing to look for more vaccine but it does not yet know if additional doses will be needed, Pierce said.

"We still don't know how many doses are still on the shelves and how much has been placed into people's arms," Rhonda Smith, spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, told UPI.

"We're in the midst of an ongoing process to determine where the need is and get vaccine to places where there is the greatest need," Smith said. "I think this is something we're gong to have to continue through the end of the flu season."

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Steve Mitchell is UPI's Medical Correspondent. E-mail sciencemail@upi.com