Speed up U.S. flu vaccine supply: White House advisers

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials should help drug companies speed up bottling of swine flu vaccines, making some available for vaccinations by mid-September, instead of mid-October, White House science advisers said on Monday.

"We recommend that the Department of Health and Human Services accelerate the availability of a portion of the vaccine supply to mid-September by having manufacturers begin to 'fill and finish' a subset of the bulk vaccine product at 15 micrograms. Such a decision would need to be taken almost immediately," the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology said in a report.

The 15 micrograms is the minimum dose. Most experts believe people will need two doses of the vaccine, delivered at least two weeks apart, to develop full immunity to the new H1N1 flu.

"All five manufacturers with orders to make H1N1 vaccine for the U.S. government have been asked to put their initially available vaccine in vials as soon as they are ready. This will move forward, even while awaiting results of clinical studies to confirm expected dosing, to assure the earliest possible availability of initial doses of vaccine," the report added.

"Once ready, it takes approximately a month for vaccine to both be placed in vials and then for the needed testing to be completed before the vaccine is ready to use."

Last week the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said only 45 million doses of the new H1N1 vaccine would be on hand in mid-October, instead of 120 million previously forecast, with 20 million a week due after that.

The agency plans to eventually vaccinate at least 160 million people by December, with pregnant women, healthcare workers, children and young adults at the front of the line.

Five companies make swine flu vaccine for the U.S. market -- AstraZeneca's MedImmune unit, CSL Ltd, GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Novartis AG and Sanofi-Aventis SA.

CSL and Sanofi have started U.S. trials and several companies, including Glaxo, have trials ongoing in Europe. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will license the new vaccine as a "strain change" from seasonal influenza -- treating it as the usual annual reformulation of the annual flu vaccine.

Pandemic H1N1 is circulating widely and experts expect it to get worse in the Northern Hemisphere's fall as schools get under way. The council's report says the virus, although moderate, poses a serious health threat to the United States because it is likely to infect so many people.

(Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle in Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts)