Companies start shipping U.S. seasonal flu vaccine

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Two U.S. flu vaccine makers have started to ship seasonal flu vaccine to health providers preparing to juggle both seasonal flu and swine flu vaccination programs, they said on Monday.

Both Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines unit of Sanofi Aventis, and CSL Biotherapies, a unit of Australia's CSL Ltd, said they had begun shipping seasonal flu vaccine to health providers in the United States.

Health officials face a daunting dual vaccination program during the Northern Hemisphere autumn aimed at preventing deaths and disease from both seasonal and the H1N1 swine flu.

European health officials said on Friday they have begun a fast-track process for reviewing data on pandemic flu vaccines in hopes of getting drugs to protect against the new H1N1 virus before the start of flu season in the Northern Hemisphere, likely in September.

The European Medicines Agency said it is reviewing data from manufacturers as they become available, a step that could speed approval. Shares of several smaller vaccines makers rose sharply on Monday, with Vical Inc, Novavax Inc and BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc touching new highs.

Sanofi said the early shipment of its Fluzone vaccine -- for infants 6 months and older through adults -- was meant to assist public health workers in immunization planning.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention broadened its recommendations for seasonal flu vaccine -- saying last week that all children over the age of 6 months should get one, in part to lower the overall burden of respiratory disease when autumn and winter comes.

Sanofi said it expects to supply more than 50 million doses of Fluzone vaccine to the United States for the 2009-2010 season.

CSL said it is on track to deliver all 8 million doses of its seasonal flu vaccine before the end of September. The company said in a statement it is also moving quickly to develop a vaccine to address the H1N1 pandemic.

The company started clinical trials of its pandemic vaccine in humans on July 22.

At least 50 governments have placed orders or are negotiating with drug companies to secure supplies of H1N1 vaccines.

Drugmakers Roche, Gilead Sciences and GlaxoSmithKline have benefited from a worldwide rush to secure supplies of their antiviral drugs to fight the fast-spreading swine flu. Other vaccine makers working on H1N1 shots include Novartis, Baxter International, AstraZeneca's MedImmune arm, and Solvay.

Each year, seasonal influenza alone is involved in between 250,000 and 500,000 deaths globally, the WHO estimates.

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)