Official: Baxter can't provide enough swine flu shots

Baxter International Inc. won't be able to provide as much swine flu vaccine to the U.K. as planned because it hasn't produced enough of a key ingredient, the government said today. Baxter said it's trying to boost production to fill the U.K.'s orders.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc will supply the bulk of the 54.6 million doses the country expects to receive by the end of the year, said Liam Donaldson, England's chief medical officer. The U.K. plans to purchase 132 million doses of swine flu vaccine, enough to protect all its residents.

"The Baxter company have been unable to supply vaccine in the quantity that they originally envisaged," Donaldson said at a press conference. "The majority of our vaccine will be GSK vaccine."

A spokeswoman for Baxter said the company is working on its vaccine production and it's "not necessarily true" that the Deerfield, Illinois-based company won't be able to deliver as much vaccine as it had anticipated.

"It's too early to tell," Kim White, a company spokeswoman, said today in a telephone interview. "We're continuing to pursue a number of yield-improvement programs as we continue to produce additional commercial batches."

White declined to comment on whether Baxter had contacted U.K. health authorities about slower-than-expected production.

"This particular virus is behaving differently than other influenza virus strains in the production process," White said. "Yield improvement has been a challenge for many vaccine manufacturers."

Not all the vaccine will be delivered before the peak of seasonal flu in early January. The U.K. expects to receive its first 300,000 doses of swine flu vaccine this month, followed by 4.4 million doses next month and 14.2 million in October, Donaldson said. The country should obtain another 15.5 million doses in November and 20.2 million in December, he said.

London-based Glaxo expects to deliver its first swine flu vaccine to the U.K. in September, company spokeswoman Alexandra Harrison said today in a telephone interview. The quantities will depend on production yields, which aren't yet known, she said.

First in Line

The first people to be immunized against swine flu starting in October will include those ages 6 months to 65 years old who have other medical conditions that could worsen flu illness, pregnant women, those who live with or care for people with weakened immune systems and those older than 65 who are most at risk of flu complications. The government estimates that 9.4 million people will fall into these groups.

"We have to protect the most vulnerable and people will understand that," Donaldson said.

The nation's 2.1 million health-care and social-care workers will be vaccinated for the illness at the same time. Two doses of the vaccine will be required to provide protection and the shots will be given three weeks apart.

The number of new swine flu cases in England slowed last week, with an estimated 25,000 people contracting a flu-like illness, compared with 30,000 the previous week. Eight people with the pandemic virus, formally known as H1N1, were confirmed in the past week to have died from the illness, bringing the total to 44. Five of the eight deaths occurred in previously healthy people, Donaldson said.

"We're concerned about that but so far this pandemic virus is behaving like a pandemic virus," Donaldson said. "It's hitting us out of season, it's affecting younger age groups disproportionately, it is causing more deaths amongst healthy people than seasonal flu, so it's going right down the line in the way you would expect a pandemic virus."

"We need to be constantly vigilant about this virus because it does have risks associated with it and also, it may change," he said.