Sanofi Wins $100 Million Contract for Avian Flu Vaccine

Sep. 16–The federal government said yesterday that it had awarded Sanofi Pasteur Inc. a $100 million contract to produce an avian flu vaccine.

It also awarded GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C. a $2.8 million contract to supply its antiviral drug Relenza, which can be used to treat influenza.

The Department of Health and Human Services said the contracts were part of the government’s plan to buy enough vaccine for 20 million people and antivirals to treat 20 million more in the event of an avian flu pandemic.

Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines business of French drugmaker Sanofi Aventis S.A., said the contract called for the company to produce the vaccine at its Swiftwater, Pa., facility for the 2008-09 flu season. Sanofi will receive additional fees for storing, formulating and filling the vaccine.

GlaxoSmithKline, the British drugmaker that has a U.S. headquarters in Philadelphia, will supply 84,300 treatment courses of the antiviral medication Relenza, also known by its generic name zanamivir, which can be used to reduce the severity of flu symptoms, HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said in a statement.

Sanofi’s contract follows two others with the government related to avian flu, the H5N1 influenza strain. In May 2004, Sanofi contracted with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to make 8,000 doses of an investigational avian flu strain, and last September the company signed a contract to make two million doses of bulk vaccine derived from that strain.

The World Health Organization has warned that avian flu, which infected 68 people worldwide between Dec. 16 and Aug. 5, and killed millions of birds in Asia, could spark a global pandemic that could kill seven million people.

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