WASHINGTON -- While the White House yesterday pressed domestic vaccine manufacturers to bolster the nation's ability to fend off an avian influenza pandemic, a vaccine to prevent humans from being infected with a strain of bird flu now circulating in Asia is already being produced and an experimental bird flu vaccine will soon be tested in humans.

Sanofi Pasteur Inc., the American subsidiary of a French drug maker, Sanofi-Aventis, has been producing bird flu vaccine at its plant in Swiftwater, Pa., since early September through a $100 million contract with the federal government.

Meanwhile, GlaxoSmithKline has refined the way it makes vaccine to increase production value from its plant in Dresden, Germany. Glaxo's move has the potential to increase plant capacity sixfold, a company executive said, transforming a production run that would make enough vaccine for 5 million people into one that could treat as many as 30 million. But first, clinical trials in humans must confirm the vaccine's safety and effectiveness.

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Permalink Saturday, October 08, 2005