U.S. Government Gives $1 Billion To 5 Companies For Flu Vaccine

Vaccines are still considered by most to be the best line of defense against a flu pandemic and there has been criticism directed at many developed countries for being far too slow in ramping up vaccine inventories and research.

On the vaccine front in the United States, some good news. Over $1 billion was dished out to 5 drug makers to help both research and production of flu vaccines. Considerably more funding will be needed and certainly more of that $3.8 billion approved by the U.S. Congress will need to trickle down in the coming years, but this is a much-needed capital injection.

"The hard truth is that, at this moment, the capacity simply does not exist in the United States to produce vaccines with sufficient speed and quantity to reach everyone out there. That's true of countries all over the world, but that's about to change. The challenges are substantial, but if we can get there, it would take the threat of a pandemic right off the table," Mike Leavitt, secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services, before signing the contracts.

Off the table completely? That's an amibitious statement, considering there are never any guarantees that the vaccines produced would protect against a strain of flu that has yet to mutate and make itself known.

[SeattleTimes]

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U.S. Government Gives $1 Billion To 5 Companies For Flu Vaccine

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