Feds urged to OK swine flu vaccine

WASHINGTON, July 24 (UPI) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration should approve the new H1N1 vaccine without waiting for safety data from clinical trials, a federal panel said.

The government and vaccine makers plan to begin human studies of the flu vaccine, but early results won't be available until September after schools have reopened, increasing the risk of the flu's transmission, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

A federal advisory panel headed by John Modlin, a professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, wants the FDA to approve and license the vaccine now while conducting human tests simultaneously.

"I think this is an entirely appropriate way of proceeding and in the public health's best interest considering that schools will be opening in a month," Modlin told the Journal in a story published Friday.

The U.S. government has purchased enough bulk ingredients to produce 195 million doses of H1N1 vaccine to help fight the illness originally called swine flu, the Journal reported.