Government plans to purchase 2 million doses of Avian Flu vaccine

3 August 2005

The UK Vaccine Industry Group (UVIG) welcomes the recent announcement to purchase Avian Flu vaccines as a strategic stockpile for use with priority groups in the first instance.

“This tender is an important step forward in the UK’s pandemic preparedness but there is much more to be done.” said Paul Rayner from UVIG, “The Government would be well advised to establish an influenza vaccine task force to ensure that industry can contribute effectively to vaccine related issues and can respond in a timely and effective manner to moves such as this.”

Vaccines will be the most important health intervention to manage the impact of a pandemic. However the exact virus strain will remain unknown until the start of a pandemic. As such Government must work with the industry and other stakeholders to provide sufficient capacity of the right vaccine in the shortest time available in the event of a pandemic.

UVIG's members are committed to working with the Government in their plans to prepare for and reduce the impact of a possible flu pandemic and urges the Government to:

- Engage openly with industry
- Support research and development of candidate vaccines
- Negotiate advance purchase agreements with vaccine manufacturers
- Build capacity by increasing access to flu vaccination during inter-pandemic years