Gustavo Capdevila
GENEVA, May 19 2009 (IPS) – The first step towards a massive global health prevention mechanism, under which billions of people around the world could be vaccinated against the H1N1 influenza virus while a handful of transnational pharmaceutical corporations raked in the profits was taken Tuesday parallel to the World Health Assembly.
The World Health Organisastion (WHO) Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on influenza A vaccines estimated that if the current outbreak turns into a full-fledged global pandemic, 4.9 billion doses of a vaccine would be needed.
An approximate idea of the numbers involved emerges from a comparison with the price of the vaccine against the common seasonal flu, which costs around 10 dollars per dose in the United States, for example.
Under this initiative, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and WHO Director-General Margaret Chan sponsored an agreement with executives from 30 pharmaceutical companies for the production of a vaccine against the H1N1 influenza virus, popularly known as swine flu.
But only three or four laboratories are in a position to develop and produce a vaccine, because the pharmaceutical industry is one of the most highly-concentrated in the world, even more than the oil industry, the head of the Butantan Foundation of Brazil, Isaías Raw, who took part in the meeting between Ban, Chan and drug industry CEOs from around the world, told reporters in Geneva.
The Butantan Foundation is a non-profit corporation that works with the Butantan Institute, a biomedical research centre affiliated with the Secretariat of Health of the southern Brazilian state of São Paulo.
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The WHO also said that it will take manufacturers at least until July to produce a swine flu vaccine.
Raw pointed out that the production capacity of pharmaceutical companies of the developing South is very limited.
Nevertheless, despite those limitations, the laboratories from developing countries taking part in the meeting announced that 10 percent of the swine flu vaccine that they produce will be distributed to United Nations agencies at prices just above cost.
Raw said he was in favour of patent waivers for swine flu vaccines and antiviral medications, and he defended the right of all countries to receive samples of the new virus strain, to carry out research.
The Brazilian scientist also advocated the creation of a global fund to support the development of research centres in developing countries.
The WHO director general said it was not easy to broker an agreement between 30 pharmaceutical companies from Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico and Vietnam, as well as Austria, Belgium, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Romania, Russia, South Korea, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.
But Chan said the pharmaceutical companies from the industrialised and developing nations had committed themselves to working with the WHO. She also said she had encouraged them to work with the global community to make sure that developing countries, poor nations would not be left behind because of a lack of means.
The world s influenza vaccine manufacturing capacity has tremendously increased in the last few years, thanks to the efforts of the industry and also to investment by governments, she said at a news briefing in Geneva, where the 62nd World Health Assembly is being held Monday through Friday.
The WHO chief explained that production capacity will depend on how many doses are needed only one, such as in the case of the seasonal flu vaccine, or two, like in the case of the bird flu vaccine.
The H5N1 strain of the avian influenza virus, which first appeared in humans in Southeast Asia in 1997 and has become more virulent since 2003, has caused the death of 50 to 60 of every 100 people who fall ill, Chan pointed out, saying it was the most toxic virus we have seen .
But, she noted, the new influenza H1N1 virus we are dealing with is having a totally different clinical picture. We see outside of Mexico mostly very mild and self-limiting disease. We hope this will continue.
For now, the WHO wants drug makers to continue putting a priority on producing seasonal flu vaccines, for which there is currently a high level of demand in the southern hemisphere, as it moves into winter.
Experts close to the WHO expressed doubt with regard to the wisdom of a hasty initiative to create stockpiles of billions of vaccines for a flu strain that so far has been quite mild, as acknowledged by the WHO itself in its official reports.
The common seasonal flu is much more aggressive, strong and mortal than the one we are seeing now, swine flu, a scientific source told IPS.
Nonetheless, authorities in industrialised countries and the WHO itself only recommend the seasonal flu vaccine in the winter for people with respiratory problems or people over 60.
In the case of this new flu, which up to now has been milder, are we going to produce a vaccine for the entire population of a country? the source wondered. For three or four pharmaceutical giants, this is the business opportunity of a century.
