Category Archives: Manufacturing
H1N1 Vaccine Quantities to Fall Short of Predictions
Image by â– Guerry via Flickr
The US may not have as many H1N1 flu vaccines available from the get-go as originally anticipated, CBS News reported on Tuesday.
According to the report, approximately 45 million doses will be available in mid-October—that’s down from the original plan of 120 million doses. The new plan calls for [...]
Posted in Manufacturing Tagged Canada, GlaxoSmithKline, Health, Influenza, Influenza A virus subtype H1N1, Influenza pandemic, Influenza vaccine 2 Comments
WHO Pushes H1N1 Flu to Pandemic State
Image by Quiplash! via Flickr
The Word Health Organization just bumped the H1N1 influenza to pandemic alert phase 6 (the highest alert level), making it the first worldwide pandemic in 41 years.
According to WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, 30,000 cases of the swine flu have been reported in 74 countries, but there is a very good possibility [...]
Also posted in Safety Tagged Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, H1N1, Health, Influenza, Influenza pandemic, Margaret Chan, Oseltamivir, Swine influenza, United States, WHO 1 Comment
Times’ Drug-Supply Snoops Bag a Pulitzer
The New York Times likes to give the drug industry a hard time with its (unbranded) scandal of the week series—off-label promoting, suppressing data, that sort of thing. But when the 2008 Pulitzer Prizes were handed out on Monday, the winner for best investigative reporting was a series by the Times that even its harshest [...]
Also posted in Regulatory, Safety, Supply Chain 4 Comments
Heparin Contaminant Identified
After weeks of questions and few answers, FDA has identified the contaminant in batches of Baxter’s blood-thinner heparin as over-sulfated chondroitin sulfate, a modified version of a biologically derived compound not found in heparin.
The over-sulfated compound found in the batches is unnatural and is more than likely chemically modified, Janet Woodcock, director of FDA’s Center [...]
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Judgment Day for Pfizer Factories