Vaccines

Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said his agency is considering a plan which would deliver vaccines to Americans through the postal service or at distribution points such as firehouses, in the event of a major flu outbreak or bioterrorist attack. Leavitt also noted his agency plans to purchase 20 million doses of tamiflu to guard against a possible outbreak of avian flu and a further 20 million doses of a vaccine when it becomes available. Leavitt said the agency hopes to …

Chiron said this morning that it will not be able to provide any flu vaccine to customers outside of the US. The news follows last week's announcement from the company that production at its plant in Marburg, Germany, has again been hit by contamination problems. The development has raised fears on the part of some observers that the company's Liverpool facility could suffer similar problems. If that happens there would likely be a repeat of last year's chaos, when the cancellation of …

GlaxoSmithKline announced plans to launch five new vaccines over the next five years. All told, the new drugs have a projected market value of $11 billion to $18 billion. The five include Cervarix, designed to protect against cervical cancer; Rotarix, which fights rotavirus gastroenteritis; and Streptorix, for pneumococcal disease. The company is also touting an improved flu vaccine and a new combination designed to combat meningitis.

- see this story from the Philadelphia Business Journal

The government will not know until at least August if there will be a flu vaccine shortage this year.Hoping to avoid last year's problems, many doctors are placing their orders early, USA Today reports. Earlier this month, Chiron, the company at the center of last year's shortage, lowered its production estimate to 18-26 million doses from an earlier estimate of 25-30 million.  Industry analysts say much hinges on an inspection at Chiron's Liverpool plant scheduled for July. …

People, it seems, do not trust their doctors very much anymore. Last week there was news that many Americans still believe that the small amounts of mercury contained in some vaccines causes autism. Now comes a poll which suggests that Americans are equally misinformed about cancer. According to research in this week's issue of the journal Cancer, a majority of Americans think "surgery can spread cancer." About one-quarter believe a cure for cancer has been found, …

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. reignited the debate over the now largely discontinued use of thimerasol as a preservative in children's vaccine. An article by Kennedy, which appears in this month's Rolling Stone and is also published online at Salon.com, alleges a massive conspiracy involving major pharma companies, federal authorities and other powerful groups to cover up a link between autism and mercury content in vaccines.

The article's publication led to immediate calls from …