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Title: Baxter (!) To Develop Swine Flu Vaccine
Source:
chicagoist.com
URL Source: http://chicagoist.com/2009/04/27/swine_flu_frenzy_grows.php
Published: Apr 27, 2009
Author: By Marcus Gilmer
Post Date: 2009-04-27 20:53:42 by TwentyTwelve
Keywords: Baxter, Swine-Flu Shots
Views: 88
Comments: 1
Swine Flu Frenzy Intensifies AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills What started as a buzz late last week has grown into full-on shrieking as this year's SARS has stepped up to the plate. With confirmed cases coming in from all over the country - including two in Kansas - the panic over the swine flu is rising. Which is fair enough: so far, 100 people are reported to have died in Mexico from the disease and it seems to be spreading fast. The threat of a pandemic even has the European Union urging cancellation of "nonessential travel" to North America. Locally, the panic is also settling in. This morning on CBS 2's site, the main headline screamed, "Public Warned Swine Flu Coming To Chicago." And, indeed, with two specimens from Indiana being tested for the disease, there's certainly reason for concern, though it should be pointed out that the number of cases reported in the U.S. right now stands somewhere between 12 and 20, depending on which media outlet you believe, and all of the cases have been much more mild than the cases in Mexico. That hasn't stopped the U.S. from declaring a "Health Emergency", which entails various levels of government preparing for an outbreak much like they prepare for hurricanes (though we know how well that can turn out). Locally, there's a Deerfield-based company interested in trying to find a vaccine to battle the Swine Flu. WGN Radio reports on Baxter International, a company that previously worked on a vaccine for bird flu. Baxter spokesman Chris Bona says the recent outbreak in Mexico has the company working with the World Health Organization to come up with a vaccine. "It's done toward potentially developing an experimental vaccine. Just to be clear and not overstate expectations and where we're at, we've just requested a sample for lab testing at this point." Bona says upon learning about the outbreak, the company asked the World Health Organization for a virus sample in order to do lab testing. He says Baxter has patented technology that allows the company to develop vaccines in half the time it usually takes - about 13 weeks instead of 26. In the meantime, though, check out this report by Time that outlines five things you should know about Swine Flu and what's going on currently with the disease. Additionally, both the Tribune and the Sun-Times have their own run-downs of what's going. user-pic By Marcus Gilmer in News on April 27, 2009 10:00 AM
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www.infowars.com/baxter-p...ined-live-bird-flu-virus/ Baxter: Product contained live bird flu virus Helen Branswell The Canadian Press March 5, 2009 The company that released contaminated flu virus material from a plant in Austria confirmed Friday that the experimental product contained live H5N1 avian flu viruses. featured stories Baxter: Product contained live bird flu virus The contamination incident, which is being investigated by the four European countries, came to light when the subcontractor in the Czech Republic inoculated ferrets with the product and they died. Ferrets shouldn’t die from exposure to human H3N2 flu viruses. And an official of the World Health Organization’s European operation said the body is closely monitoring the investigation into the events that took place at Baxter International’s research facility in Orth-Donau, Austria. “At this juncture we are confident in saying that public health and occupational risk is minimal at present,” medical officer Roberta Andraghetti said from Copenhagen, Denmark. “But what remains unanswered are the circumstances surrounding the incident in the Baxter facility in Orth-Donau.” The contaminated product, a mix of H3N2 seasonal flu viruses and unlabelled H5N1 viruses, was supplied to an Austrian research company. The Austrian firm, Avir Green Hills Biotechnology, then sent portions of it to sub-contractors in the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Germany. The contamination incident, which is being investigated by the four European countries, came to light when the subcontractor in the Czech Republic inoculated ferrets with the product and they died. Ferrets shouldn’t die from exposure to human H3N2 flu viruses. Public health authorities concerned about what has been described as a “serious error” on Baxter’s part have assumed the death of the ferrets meant the H5N1 virus in the product was live. But the company, Baxter International Inc., has been parsimonious about the amount of information it has released about the event. On Friday, the company’s director of global bioscience communications confirmed what scientists have suspected. “It was live,” Christopher Bona said in an email. The contaminated product, which Baxter calls “experimental virus material,” was made at the Orth-Donau research facility. Baxter makes its flu vaccine — including a human H5N1 vaccine for which a licence is expected shortly — at a facility in the Czech Republic. People familiar with biosecurity rules are dismayed by evidence that human H3N2 and avian H5N1 viruses somehow co-mingled in the Orth-Donau facility. That is a dangerous practice that should not be allowed to happen, a number of experts insisted. Accidental release of a mixture of live H5N1 and H3N2 viruses could have resulted in dire consequences. While H5N1 doesn’t easily infect people, H3N2 viruses do. If someone exposed to a mixture of the two had been simultaneously infected with both strains, he or she could have served as an incubator for a hybrid virus able to transmit easily to and among people. That mixing process, called reassortment, is one of two ways pandemic viruses are created. There is no suggestion that happened because of this accident, however. “We have no evidence of any reassortment, that any reassortment may have occurred,” said Andraghetti. “And we have no evidence of any increased transmissibility of the viruses that were involved in the experiment with the ferrets in the Czech Republic.” Baxter hasn’t shed much light — at least not publicly — on how the accident happened. Earlier this week Bona called the mistake the result of a combination of “just the process itself, (and) technical and human error in this procedure.” He said he couldn’t reveal more information because it would give away proprietary information about Baxter’s production process. Andraghetti said Friday the four investigating governments are co-operating closely with the WHO and the European Centre for Disease Control in Stockholm, Sweden. “We are in very close contact with Austrian authorities to understand what the circumstances of the incident in their laboratory were,” she said. “And the reason for us wishing to know what has happened is to prevent similar events in the future and to share lessons that can be learned from this event with others to prevent similar events. … This is very important.”
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