Club Cobra - Flu vaccine runs out !

If you or your loved ones have been putting off getting your flu shot I would get it in gear very soon.

BIOTECH REPORT

Aventis runs out of flu vaccine
Company spokesman calls demand 'unprecedented'

By Ted Griffith, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 4:33 PM ET Dec. 5, 2003

BOSTON (CBS.MW) -- Pharmaceutical company Aventis acknowledged on Friday that it has virtually run out of flu vaccine amid high demand and warnings from federal officials.
Aventis, based in Strasbourg, France, the largest supplier of flu vaccine in the United States, said it had shipped nearly all of its supply of flu vaccine, 43 million doses. Aventis spokesman Len Lavenda said only a small supply of vaccine for infants remained.

Lavenda said an unusually harsh outbreak of the flu has driven heavy demand for the vaccine.

Western states have been particularly hard hit, with the flu claiming the lives of six children in Colorado, three in Texas and one each in Oklahoma and New Mexico, according to the Associated Press.

"The demand is unprecedented," Lavenda said. "The flu has come back with a vengeance."

Lavenda said Aventis (AVE: news, chart, profile) could not have foreseen that this flu season would be so severe, and he said the company in a typical year ends up with millions of unused doses.

"These early outbreaks, nobody could have predicted," he said.

There should still be supply of the vaccine among health care providers, at least for now, Lavenda said.

"The message to the public is: If you are thinking of getting a flu shot, don't wait any longer," he said. "We think there is still vaccine available. You may not find it on the first phone call, but it is out there."

U.S.-listed shares of Aventis slipped 17 cents to $59.12. Shares of biotech firm Chiron (CHIR: news, chart, profile), another leading maker of flu vaccine, edged down 45 cents to $54.70.

Shares of biotech firm MedImmune (MEDI: news, chart, profile) surged $1.64, or 6.5 percent, to $27.04 and shares of pharmaceutical company Wyeth (WYE: news, chart, profile) shed 30 cents to $39.75. MedImmune and Wyeth this year introduced the first nasal-spray flu vaccine, called FluMist.

Rhonda Smith, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, said the federal agency is assessing the situation to determine whether there is still sufficient supply of flu vaccine.

"We want to see where the vaccine is and make adjustments so that vaccine gets to people who need it," she said.

The CDC last month issued an alert that this flu season is shaping up to be the most severe in at least three years, and urged people to get vaccinated. About 36,000 people die in the United States every year from complications related to the flu, according to the CDC.

Ted Griffith is a reporter for CBS.MarketWatch.com