New Zealand's Deja Flu?
A major flu vaccine manufacturer discovers production problems and informs its customers that it may not be able to deliver the vaccine before the upcoming flu season begins.
Sound familiar? This time, however, it's a French vaccine maker and the host government is that of New Zealand.
In a turn of events eerily similar to what first plagued the United States beginning last September, the French vaccine maker Sanofi-Pasteur said questions have arisen about the safety and effectiveness of its flu vaccine produced for New Zealand, and has informed the government its shipment for the coming winter's flu season will have to be delayed, the New Zealand Herald reported.
A spokesman for the New Zealand health ministry warned the delay may have created the country's most serious health crisis in many years, the newspaper said.
Last fall, the British government revoked the license of a vaccine maker that was to have produced about half of the United States' supply of flu shots ordered for this winter. The contamination problems that forced the five-month shutdown of Chiron Corp.'s Liverpool plant led to massive flu shot shortages in the United States for several months. British regulators, saying the problems had been rectified, restored the company's license earlier this month.
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