LONDON (Reuters) - European authorities have approved the first pre-pandemic bird flu vaccine, Prepandrix, from GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK.L), its maker said on Monday.
Europe's biggest drugmaker hopes the move will spur fresh stockpile orders from governments around the world.
Prepandrix is intended for use before or in the early stages of a flu pandemic. It triggers an immune response to the H5N1 strain of bird flu, which experts fear may trigger a widespread human flu outbreak threatening millions of people.
Problem: To date, Avian Bird Flu has caused the death of ZERO Americans. Let me repeat that. Not one single American has died from the dreaded bird flu -- population: 300 Million
Really now, do you think this is honest science, well-intentioned public policy or none of the above?
And, Qui Bono, from this hysteria? Why, the folks selling a vaccine to thwart this non-existent dreaded outbreak, of course.
So far, Glaxo has received orders for Prepandrix from a handful of governments, including the United States, Switzerland and Finland. In 2007, it sold 146 million pounds ($284 million) of its pre-pandemic vaccine and bulk antigen.
Now Glaxo's flu vaccine head Emmanuel Hanon expects more buyers to follow, justifying the $2 billion his company has invested in increasing flu capacity.
"It's clear that some governments are more proactive than others ... the policy is evolving and I'm looking for some kind of alignment in terms of what governments are going to do," he told reporters.
Gin up fears of a non-threat, seed the literature with bogus studies of avian bird flu, convince the public to worry about it, invest $2 Billion in a vaccine (probably partly funded by Gov't grants,) sell the vaccine back to the Gov't's to "protect the people" -- all for a virus that's caused ZERO deaths in the good 'ole US of A.
Quite a racket, No?
Also don't forget to watch made-for-tv "Fatal Contact--Bird Flu in America" -- but only if you're really bored on a Thursday night at 3:00 a.m. Don't worry if you missed it either, everyone else did -- it came out 2 years ago.
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