Canadian vaccine supplier won't sell surplus to U.S.

[Kadie]

Canadian vaccine supplier won't sell surplus to U.S.

Tuesday, December 7, 2004



(12-07) 09:59 PST MONTREAL (AP) --

Canada's main supplier of flu vaccine said Tuesday it will sell its remaining 1.2 million surplus doses in Canada, not the United States, at the request of the federal government in Ottawa.

In Washington, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said the United States was immediately buying 1.2 million doses of a German flu vaccine, Fluarix, for availability this month. He added that British manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline had agreed to make about 3 million more doses available.

Vancouver-based company ID Biomedical had been in negotiations since early October with U.S. public health officials eager to buy surplus doses to help the United States with its acute flu vaccine shortage this year.

But a rush on flu shots in Canada, in part fueled by media coverage of the shortage south of the border, prompted Canadian health officials to fear they may run out before flu season even hit.

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