12 million old flu shots dumped last summer (they were still good)

[jamesinca]

12 million old flu shots dumped last summer
Shots are now in short supply, and influenza rages

Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer Saturday, December 13, 2003


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Just months before Americans began clamoring for the last remaining flu shots, 12 million doses from last year's stockpile of a virtually identical vaccine was dumped in the trash as expired.

Now, as clinics around the country struggle to cope with one of the worst flu seasons in years, the shortage is likely to raise questions as to why flu vaccine is declared unfit at the end of each season, when it might provide a safety net for the following year.

Since this summer, an estimated $120 million worth of last year's flu vaccine was destroyed. But except for the June 30 expiration date, they were identical to the current shots now is such short supply. Experts say that flu vaccine can lose potency over time, but it does not spoil like fruit.

<SNIP>

"By and large, the expiration dates that are put on drugs are very conservative. This vaccine quite possibly could have been used,'' said Dr. Larry Drew, director of the UCSF virology laboratory.

On Thursday, the Bush Administration secured 250,000 doses of extra vaccine from Aventis Pasteur, the Pennsylvania drugmaker that has supplied half of this year's 83 million flu shots. The government may gain an additional 400,000 doses from Chiron Corp. of Emeryville, which produced the other half of the American supply from its plant in Liverpool, England. But those numbers pale before the 12 million doses that last year simply went to waste.

In a typical year, the formula for a flu vaccine changes from the year before -- adjusted to protect against newly evolved strains of influenza. But this has not been a typical year. For the first time in at least a decade, this year's flu vaccine is exactly the same as the year before.

<SNIP>

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www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/12/13/FLU.TMP

[Malva Zebrina]

1. if it could have been used

I wonder where it was dumped. How do they dump these products? and where?

[baby_bear]

2. probably incinerated

up in smoke, as it were...seriously.

Maybe those of us who haven't yet gotten the vaccine will inhale enough to be protective...

:smoke:

[jamesinca]

5. Murphys law says no

The temperature will denature the protein and it would lead to some uncurable mutant strain according to Murphys law, don't inhale anything from a smoke stack.

[0007]

3. Probably on the black market, LOL!

I don't know.

[izzie]

6. Sold off to a poor third world country? Not said in jest.

I think that is where things like that go.

[jamesinca]

7. Yes I did forget that aspect

There are a lot of things that go to 3rd world countries. I don't know if outdated medications are one of the things that goes there or not.

[jamesinca]

4. These types of things are usually incinerated

High pressure steam and lots of heat, or it is incinerated with dry heat. It is then bagged up, lableld medical waste and dumped at sea to wash up later on shore. Ok, the last part about washing up on shore may or may not be true, but once it goes out to the garbage it is no longer any good. It is in any case destroyed. It is not useable, not because it expired, but because it is destroyed.

[no_hypocrisy]

8. The vaccine manufacturer probably destroyed the expired product

notwithstanding whether or not it was still effective because of fear of potential class action suits if it were administered after the expiration date. It's arbitrary but this is routine procedure in most cases for that reason.

The best solution would have been to manufacture more of this year's vaccine. Europe seemed to have enough . . .

[MrPrax]

9. This Flu shot shortage smells...

Given that corps generally under Shrub have easy riding on an open range and their 'wish lists' are being granted without much debate (environment, media, food industry, etc)...the biggest receipents of this have been Big PhaRm.

Is there anyone else that feels that this shortage should be investigated by an independent watchdog--it smacks of 'fraud' and an attempt to force up prices...

There have been some interesting stories about this lately...

From the Independent quoting the CEO of GlaxoSmithKline saying most pharms don't work half of the time...

From many sources pointing out that it is ONLY the US facing shortages

From the Industry itself reporting less than 2% of it's R&D on influenza

This story about how possibly safe vaccines are routinely dumped simply for inventory purposes

The huge rise in pharms that are crippling aspects of the US health system to such a point that many states are willing to defy the law and buy from foreign sources simply to get a cheaper price...
etc etc
This is an industry that over the 90s performed some of the largest 'mergers' in corporate history--maybe that should be reviewed as well

This smells like an virtual explosion at a aluminuium roll plant...

:tinfoilhat:

[sam7]

10. Honestly,

I can't blame the drug companies for ditching the stuff. The first time somebody had a bad reaction to an expired dose they'd get sued back to the stone age.

[pinto]

11. and the "viral genetic id" mix changes each year....n/t

[stickdog]

13. You can't sue for adverse reactions to many vaccines. (nt)

[RobinA]

14. You Should Probably

let the pharmaceutical companies know this, they have paid millions in claims against them for vaccination reactions. It's one of the reasons no one wants to make the stuff anymore.

[stickdog]

17. Yeah, that and headache of huge boondoggle government contracts. (nt)

[fishnfla]

12. these vaccines most likely would not work against the new flu strain

actually none of the new or old vaccines would. Its a new virus

[jamesinca]

18. Yes it is a new strain of virus

But they can not grow the new vaccine in the correct medium for FDA approval, so they are left with using last years vaccine. The vaccine they have been using is last years recipe, now they have thrown out a bunch of it. That is the point of the article.

[GinaMaria]

15. Question

A little off topic, but the thought struck me today. Are flu deaths really that high? Does anyone know the number from previous years? Just a tin foil hat moment, where I wondered if this was a ploy to sell more vaccine by causing fear. Sounds a lot like 'shark attacks' in the recent news media past.

[bicentennial_baby]

16. 35,000-40,000 per year

Influenza is no joke for some people