Influenze Vaccine Supply International Task Force

Go to the IFPMA website for the task force.

A specialized group within the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA), the Influenza Vaccine Supply international task force, was created in 2002. It was intended to help business leaders in vaccine companies in making necessary decisions to ensure adequate capacity to produce and distribute influenza vaccine in interpandemic and pandemic years, as well as to assist health authorities policy makers in making decisions on vaccination recommendations and reimbursement, the level of vaccine use and vaccine delivery strategies.

Member companies are: Baxter Vaccines, Berna Biotech, Biken, Chiron Vaccines, CSL Ltd, Crucell, Denka Seiken, GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, ID Biomedical, Kaketsuken, Kitasato Institute, MedImmune, sanofi pasteur, Sanofi Pasteur MSD and Solvay Pharmaceuticals.

The member companies - representing more than 90% of the world production - are seeking to ensure that if a pandemic is thought imminent, large quantities of a specific pandemic vaccine will be made available in the shortest period of time.

The Scientific, Production and Research (SPR) subgroup of the task force is described as "actively working on the technical issues for developing, licensing and producing a pandemic vaccine in close collaboration with national and international agencies, including the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) and the National Institute of Health (NIH) in the USA......

"Meanwhile the Policy, Practices and Communication (PPC) sub-group has published a series of articles in the scientific journal Vaccine, has initiated an analysis of influenza vaccine distribution throughout the world and a large health economic study on influenza vaccination in healthy adults 50-65 years old, which should support the public health and societal value of influenza vaccination. Finally the IVS international task force will shortly issue a position paper on the industry perspective on pandemic preparedness."