GSK gets European approval for bird flu vaccine

LONDON GlaxoSmithKline has received European approval for a vaccine that fights H5N1 virus, also called bird flu, according to Forbes.

The company expects a good chance of a pandemic occurring with the H5N1 virus, and although no signs point to a worldwide pandemic, the company wants to assure governments that it has the vaccine just in case.

Also, questions will now start to rise as to what happens if the next pandemic isn’t the H5N1 strain? The vaccine would most likely be useless against other strains.

But, a spokesperson for GlaxoSmithKline said that the company believed an eventual pandemic would involve a strain in the H5N1 family, and that a pre-pandemic treatment would save the four-to-six-month delay of having to react to an official pandemic announcement. “The U.K. government could buy it tomorrow and vaccinate us tomorrow,” she said.

In 2007, Finland, Switzerland and the United States all placed orders for GSK's H5N1 vaccine totaling $285.1 million.