Aches and pains: Learning lessons from the influenza vaccine shortage

Article in IAVIReportOnline.org:

"In November 2004, the World Health Organization convened a two-day meeting of all major vaccine manufacturers to assess the status of vaccine preparedness for an influenza pandemic. The troubling conclusion was that should a pandemic strain emerge, companies wouldn?t be able to quickly produce vaccine for the commercial market. Even at full production levels, worldwide influenza vaccine manufacturing capacity totals only an estimated 300 million doses per year. ?A new pandemic would show up the inadequacy of current facilities to produce enough vaccine for billions of people, and poor countries would be the first to suffer,? says Plotkin. Experts predict a flu pandemic could cause in excess of 200,000 deaths in the US alone."