Archive for August 28th, 2009

August 28, 2009

Obama White House Health Advisers have asked that H1N1 vaccine be made available in September. The Presidents Scientific Advisors have said the government should “speed up” availability. There! That’s done! Check it off the list.

That would be a change…

Unfortunately, CDC director Thomas Frieden has provided a reality check indicating that even though he has “mobilzed” over 1,000 CDC employees (whatever that means), the vaccine will still not be available until at least October. In reality, the government doesn’t do anything to the development of vaccines. It is private enterprise that get’s it done. Private enterprise with names like Astra-Zeneca, sanofi-aventis and Novartis. NOT the CDC. Not FEMA. Not DoD. NOT VA. NOT any of the alphabet soup agencies inside the beltway either!

Changing job responsiblity at CDC does not make clinical development any faster! The reality is that federal government interference into the flu vaccine markets over the years has eliminated many companies from participation in this important development process.

And guess what, there are no generic flu vaccines! Oh yeah, and you can’t get cheap copycat vaccines from Madagascar or even Venezuela!

Keep washing your hands! Keep buying hand sanitizer!