November 11, 2009
A little more vaccine help is on the way for swine flu.
Information on flu shots at a California vaccine clinic.
The Food and Drug Administration just approved a shot against the new H1N1 virus from GlaxoSmithKline. As a result there are now four companies able to provide swine flu shots in the US. The fifth provider is AstraZeneca's MedImmune unit, whose vaccine is a nasal spray.
None of the vaccines for America, including Glaxo's, contain an adjuvant, or immune-system booster. Those chemicals have never been used in an approved flu vaccine in this country, though they are OK in Europe.
Don't expect the Glaxo approval to do a whole lot to ease shortages of swine flu vaccine.
The company expects to start shipping the vaccine next month and to fulfill the federal government's order of 7.6 million doses of Glaxo vaccine by the end of the year.
The feds, have orders about 250 million doses of vaccine, said last week that 38 million doses were now available.
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