Randeep Ramesh
Guardian.co.uk
06/04/2010

Scientists who drew up the key World Health Organisation guidelines advising governments to stockpile drugs in the event of a flu pandemic had previously been paid by drug companies which stood to profit, according to a report out today.

An investigation by the British Medical Journal and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the not-for-profit reporting unit, shows that WHO guidance issued in 2004 was authored by three scientists who had previously received payment for other work from Roche, which makes Tamiflu, and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), manufacturer of Relenza.

City analysts say that pharmaceutical companies banked more than $7bn (£4.8bn) as governments stockpiled drugs. The issue of transparency has risen to the forefront of public health debate after dramatic predictions last year about a swine flu pandemic did not come true.

Some countries, notably Poland, declined to join the panic-buying of vaccines and antivirals triggered when the WHO declared the swine flu outbreak a pandemic a year ago this week. The UK, which warned that 65,000 could die as a result of the virus, spent an estimated £1bn stockpiling drugs and vaccines; officials are now attempting to unpick expensive drug contracts.

The cabinet office has launched an inquiry into the cost to the taxpayer of the panic-buying of drugs.

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Lisa Schnirring
CIDRAP
06/02/2010

The risk for the paralytic condition called Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) in people who received pandemic H1N1 influenza vaccine was about the same as the risk among those who receive seasonal flu shots, according to preliminary findings released today by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

GBS is a rare side effect of illness or vaccination and was linked to the 1976 swine flu vaccine. Today’s preliminary analysis from the CDC’s Emerging Infections Program (EIP) suggests there were 0.8 excess cases of GBS per 1 million vaccinations, whereas surveillance for the 1976 pandemic vaccine showed about 10 excess cases per 1 million vaccinations. The CDC published the findings in an early-release edition of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).

The CDC’s EIP, a collaboration between state health departments and academic centers, conducts disease surveillance in 10 states. Today’s analysis covers patients who were hospitalized with GBS after September 30, 2009, just as the vaccine launched. Researchers interviewed patients who met the GBS classification definition by phone to gather more information about their medical and vaccination history.

The group calculated GBS incidence for vaccinated and unvaccinated populations by using data from the CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and its national 2009 H1N1 flu telephone survey.

The EIP identified 326 GBS cases that met the case criteria, of which 27 patients had received the pandemic vaccine within 42 days before illness onset and 274 had not received the vaccine. Status was unknown or pending for 25 of the cases. Sixteen (59%) of the 27 who had received the pandemic vaccine also reported other illness symptoms in the 42 days before GBS onset. Meanwhile, 78% of unvaccinated patients reported other illness symptoms before GBS onset.

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