Phila. could be a center for new flu vaccine

There is no vaccine against the deadly new strain of swine flu, but the federal government is pondering whether to make one. That's a tricky decision, but if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gives the go-ahead, it likely will turn to pharmaceutical companies with operations in this region.

In the Poconos, the French vaccine-maker Sanofi Pasteur already has the capacity to churn out 50 million doses of its seasonal influenza vaccine, Fluzone, which protects against a different strain of the flu. Spokeswoman Donna Cary said the company was ready to help the CDC should the agency decide to create and manufacture a vaccine against the swine flu.

The company also is close to bringing a new vaccine facility into full production at the Swiftwater, Pa., location that will double its capacity, Cary said.

London-based GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C. said it, too, stood ready to to start making a swine-flu vaccine. The company, which employs about 4,500 people in the Philadelphia area, makes 75 million doses yearly of its Fluarix and Flulaval vaccines, which protect against seasonal flu.

GlaxoSmithKline also said it had given 100,000 packs of Relenza and 170,000 additional doses of its seasonal influenza vaccine to Mexican authorities, at their request.

Governments have been adding to their stockpiles of Relenza and Gilead Sciences Inc.'s Tamiflu, both antiviral medications, boosting the share prices of both companies.

GlaxoSmithKline shares jumped 7.57 percent, to $31.56. Gilead shares rose 3.78 percent, to $47.53. Shares in Sanofi-Aventis, parent of Sanofi Pasteur, increased 2.43 percent, to $41.70.

"Tamiflu made by Gilead and Roche and Relenza made by GlaxoSmithKline will be natural beneficiaries as stockpiles of these medicines (created when Avian flu emerged) should need replacing and could lead to upside trading for them," Les Funtleyder, an analyst with Miller Tabak, told clients in a note yesterday.

Novartis A.G. also could benefit, he said, because it makes vaccines.

In deciding whether to make a vaccine, the CDC first must isolate the swine-flu strain and work with pharmaceutical companies to figure out how to manufacture it. Government officials also must believe that the risk of a broad outbreak of that particular flu strain is worth creating a new vaccine, because doing so will divert resources away from manufacture of vaccines against other flu strains.

A decision by the Ford administration to promote mass-vaccination programs against a 1976 outbreak of swine flu remains controversial because the disease did not spread as quickly as anticipated, and the vaccine itself was believed to cause a syndrome that paralyzed some people.