WHO flu chief urges more drug makers to donate flu vaccines to poorer countries

September 30th, 2009 EU warns of new antitrust probes for drug makersBRUSSELS — The European Union's top antitrust official warned drug makers Tuesday to "look out" for new investigations in coming months. EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said regulators were capitalizing on a recent broad inquiry into the pharmaceutical sector that aimed to find out why generic versions of branded drugs were slow to come to the market and if innovation is held back.

September 25th, 2009 EU drug agency: License 2 swine flu vaccinesLONDON — The European Union's drug regulator recommended Friday that two swine flu vaccines be licensed in the 27-nation bloc to ensure their availability before the start of the normal flu season. The European Medicines Agency called for the vaccines made by Novartis AG and GlaxoSmithKline PLC to be granted a marketing authorization.

September 24th, 2009 Senators rebuff attempt to squeeze drug makersWASHINGTON — Senators writing a sweeping health care overhaul have rebuffed an attempt to squeeze more money from the drug industry for medicines used by low-income seniors. By a 13-10 vote, the Democratic-dominated Senate Finance Committee defeated an amendment requiring rebates of $106 billion over 10 years from the industry.

September 18th, 2009 WHO: Pandemic flu vaccine production to fall shortGENEVA — Global production of swine flu vaccines will be "substantially less" than the previous maximum forecast of 94 million doses a week, the World Health Organization said Friday. The number of doses produced in a year will therefore fall short of the 4.9 billion doses the global health body previously hoped could be available for the pandemic, WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told reporters in Geneva.

August 21st, 2009 BEIJING — The global spread of swine flu will endanger more lives as it speeds up in coming months and governments must boost preparations for a swift response, the World Health Organization said Friday. There will soon be a period of further global spread of the virus, and most countries may see swine flu cases double every three to four days for several months until peak transmission is reached, said WHO's Western Pacific director, Shin Young-soo.

August 7th, 2009 LONDON — French drugmaker Sanofi Pasteur began human trials of its swine flu vaccine this week in about 2,000 people in the United States, the company said Friday — becoming the third company conducting clinical trials on swine flu vaccines. Sanofi Pasteur's trials began Thursday, testing both the vaccine's safety and how many doses would be needed to protect people from swine flu, the company said in a statement.

August 6th, 2009 WHO: Swine flu vaccine on trackLONDON — Swine flu vaccine manufacturers are on track to start delivering the first batches of it in September, the World Health Organization said Thursday. Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO's vaccine director, said several drug makers have started testing swine flu vaccine in humans, and that early safety results should be available next month, clearing the way for its use.

July 24th, 2009 WHO flu chief: No compromise on vaccine safetyGENEVA — The World Health Organization's flu chief says there must be no doubt over the safety of swine flu vaccines before they are given to the public. Keiji Fukuda says health officials and drug makers are looking into ways of speeding up the production of the vaccine before the northern hemisphere enters its flu season in the fall.

July 24th, 2009 AP Interview: Flu chief: Pandemic in early stagesGENEVA — The global swine flu epidemic is still in its early stages, even though reports of over 100,000 infections in England alone last week are plausible, the World Health Organization's flu chief said Friday, Keiji Fukuda, WHO's Assistant Director-General for Health Security and Environment, told The Associated Press that given the size of the world's population, the new H1N1 virus is likely to spread for some time. WHO earlier estimated that as many as 2 billion people could become infected over the next two years — nearly one-third of the world population.

July 8th, 2009 EU warns of antitrust probes into drug makersBRUSSELS — The European Union is warning of a wave of antitrust probes into major drug makers Wednesday, saying they were deliberately stalling cheaper generic medicines. It started an investigation Wednesday into France's Les Laboratoires Servier for hindering the launch of generic versions of its heart disease drug.

July 6th, 2009 UN chief: $1 billion needed against swine fluGENEVA — The United Nations may need more than $1 billion this year to help poor countries fight the global swine flu epidemic, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday. Ban said the money is needed to ensure that poor countries get some vaccine doses and antivirals if the global epidemic continues to spread.

June 17th, 2009 Sanofi-Aventis to give pandemic flu vaccine to WHOTRENTON, N.J. — French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis plans to donate millions of doses of swine flu vaccine to the World Health Organization for use in poor countries, Chief Executive Christopher Viehbacher said Wednesday.

June 17th, 2009 Sanof-Aventis to give pandemic flu vaccine to WHOTRENTON, N.J. — The drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis says it will donate millions of doses of swine flu vaccine to the World Health Organization for poor countries.

June 12th, 2009 Drugmakers rush to produce a swine flu vaccineLONDON — With swine flu now an official pandemic, the race is on among drugmakers to produce a vaccine. GlaxoSmithKline said Thursday after the World Health Organization declared a global flu epidemic that it would be ready within weeks to begin large-scale vaccine production.

May 19th, 2009 GENEVA - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday that cooperation was needed from the private sector to tackle the influenza A(H1N1) virus, also called swine flu. Ban was addressing delegates at the World Health Assembly in Geneva, just after a meeting he held with the representatives of some 30 pharmaceutical companies.