US has announced team up with multinational pharmaceutical companies CSL, GSK, Sanofi, and Seqirus for a $72 million worth of bird flu vaccine production initiative.
On Friday, October 4, the US Federal health officials announced that they will be providing a whopping $72 million to the multinational pharma companies to boost the country’s supply of bird flu vaccines.
The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) said that this grant is provided by the Department of Health and Human Services' Center for Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) under a national preparedness initiative.
Although there is no recommendations for the US nationals to get the dose of vaccination against bird flu, the officials announced that the measures are being taken out of “an abundance of caution,” and will empower the pharmaceutical companies CSL, GSK, Sanofi, and Seqirus, to prepare the vaccines in bulk quantity if an emergency arises in the future.
The vaccines will be in the forms of ready-to-use vials or pre-filled syringes.
"The actions taken today will improve the country's preparedness against novel influenza, including H5. The ability to rapidly develop and distribute vaccines is essential in preparing for a public health emergency,” said David Boucher, director of infectious disease preparedness and response at ASPR.
This comes after CSL announced another $121.4 million BADRA grant in order to increase the production and supply of its MF59 adjuvant for influenza vaccines.
