UN chief meets drugmakers on swine flu vaccine (1st Lead)

May 19, 2009, 11:59 GMT

Geneva - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was meeting Tuesday with about 30 drugmakers to discuss the development of a vaccine for the new H1N1 virus.

Experts believe the first stages of the process could be completed by the end of the month. Several more months would be needed before companies could begin large-scale productions.

'We are working to develop vaccine seed strains to share with manufacturers around the world,' the acting head of the US Centers for Disease Control, Richard Besser, said in Geneva. He said there was good global cooperation in regards to the virus.

The officials were in Geneva for the World Health Assembly, the annual ministerial meeting of the World Health Organization (WHO), taking place this week.

Swine flu, as the virus is also known, dominated much of the first day of the assembly.

One concern raised so far has been that poorer countries would not be able to afford and procure vaccines and anti-viral drugs.

US Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said her country had not yet reserved orders of a future vaccine.

Ban, along with WHO Director General Margaret Chan, was to ask for some cost reductions for poorer countries. Chan has said she supports equitable access to drugs against the new flu.

The two also aimed to get a better picture of manufacturing capacities. If the WHO were to call for the production of a vaccine against H1N1, it would have to figure out how to balance production with the ongoing need for seasonal flu vaccines.

While a committee of the assembly was continuing to meet on swine flu, general health issues were slowly beginning to come to the forefront in ministers' speeches in the main hall.

On the first day of the meeting, Chan implied she would tread carefully before raising the pandemic influenza alert system to Phase 6, the highest level. Currently, the agency has the alert at Phase 5.

Ministers asked her Monday to also take certain issues, like the virulence of H1N1, into consideration, and not only its geographic spread. So far, the illness has taken a mild course in most cases.

There was also growing political and economic concerns about such steps in reaction to swine flu.

The World Health Organization said there were at least 9,830 confirmed infections globally, about 95 per cent of which were in North America. Of the 79 related deaths, most were in Mexico, with a handful in the United States. Canada and Costa Rica had one fatality each.

Health officials have stressed the need for authorities to remain alert, in case the virus changes and the disease becomes more severe.

Owing to the swine flu outbreak, delegates decided to slim down the meeting to just five days, instead of the original nine. Several key health issues, including relations with the private sector and discussions on various illnesses, have been dropped from the agenda.

Ban, who is scheduled to address the ministers after his meeting with the private sector, is also set to meet with Nimal Siripala De Silva, the Sri Lankan minister of health who was chosen as the president of the annual assembly.

The UN chief was reportedly set to travel to Sri Lanka later this week for talks with the country's leaders on the conflict there.

The government appears to have defeated the Tamil Tiger rebels, though UN agencies were still warning of a terrible humanitarian situation, with possible war crimes having been committed by parties to the conflict.