AstraZeneca’s Fluenz chosen for wider flu immunisation
pharmafile | July 26, 2012 | News story | Sales and Marketing | AZ, AstraZeneca, Cervarix, Gardasil, Lansley, MedImmune
The UK has chosen AstraZeneca’s Fluenz to extend the country’s flu vaccination programme.
The health secretary Andrew Lansley said that AZ’s nasal spray would now be used to treat all children from two to 17 years on the NHS.
Previously the policy was to only vaccinate high-risk people – the government hopes that by immunising healthy children, it can help reduce overall flu deaths and hospitalisations by creating a ‘herd immunity’.
But the Anglo-Swedish firm said it could not begin the contract until September 2014 as it does not yet have the capacity to create enough doses for a full rollout.
The contract is expected to cost more than £100 million a year and cover up to 9 million children once the programme is fully established.
The vaccine, which is sold under the brand name Fluenz in Europe and FluMist in the US – where it has been available for over 10 years – is made by AstraZeneca’s MedImmune unit.
It was only approved in Europe in 2011 and launched in the UK earlier this year. The spray costs £14 according to the British National Formulary, but this will most likely be discounted for the UK contract.
Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis all make similar influenza vaccines – however these drugs use an inactivated strain of the virus and are injectable.
AZ’s drug, which contains live attenuated flu virus strains, comes in the form of a nasal spray, and could prove to increase vaccination rates as it does not need to be injected.
The exact price and conditions of the contract have not been made public, and follows the same secrecy the government used when deciding between Gardasil and Cervarix for its cervical vaccine programme.
The contract is a much-needed boost for AZ, and comes in the same week as the publication of its dismal second quarter results.
Ben Adams
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