Flu Vaccine Shortages

New Health Minister Philipp Roesler said vaccine manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) had assured delegates at the emergency flu summit on Wednesday, November 11, that the company was working toward overcoming the shortages

The pharmaceuticals giant had pledged to deliver 20 million doses of Pandemrix by the end of the year, said Roesler.

"These figures already make clear that not everyone can be vaccinated," he conceded. "It is now important that not everyone runs to the vaccination points."

Health minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, Malu Dreyer, said members of the emergency services would be prioritized. The chronically will be next in line. "You don't have to go out and get vaccinated tomorrow," said Dreyer.

Patients sent home

Earlier this week many Germans arriving in doctors' practices to be vaccinated had to be sent home because of the delivery shortfalls.

Germany's state ministers, a representative of the vaccine manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and the heads of two public health institutes were at the summit on Wednesday, November 11, which was convened after reports of shortages in some regions.

After the meeting, Thueringen's health minister said 150,000 adjuvant-free doses of the vaccine would be available for pregnant women in December. The presence of adjuvants, additives designed to strengthen the active ingredients, in the GSK vaccine have been a cause of concern in Germany.

Taubert cautioned that there was no cause for hysteria. She said new supplies of the vaccine would also be delivered in January and February.

Ahead of the summit, the state health minister of Saxon-Anhalt, Gerlinde Kuppe, called on the pharmaceutical industry to issue reliable figures so that states know how much vaccine they can count on.

"We can't accept the vague announcements from week to week that supplies could drop again or they could rise again," said Kuppe.

Demand far outstrips supply

Up to now, German states have only received around half of the vaccine they were expecting from pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), according to Thueringen Health Ministry's department head, Heinz Fracke.

In some areas, the situation is more extreme than others. The health ministry of Germany's most populous state North Rhine-Westphalia said it would next week only be receiving 120,000 of the 420,000 doses that it had ordered.

Roesler told German television on Tuesday that he was confident that the required protection could be put in place. "Regional difficulties can arise even in the case of optimum production. That is why I am appealing for patience," he said. "The sector is making an effort and the states are putting on a strong show locally."

GSK spokesman Markus Hardenblicker said that the guaranteed quotas had been met and that the states were being informed a week in advance of the amount of vaccine that they would be receiving. He said figures issued in July had been non-binding.

The pharmaceutical company spokesman also said significantly higher levels of supplies of the Pandemrix vaccine would be delivered at the end of November and start of December. However, the company has admitted that there had been initial production difficulties.

Germans put skepticism aside

In September a study found that 62 percent of Germans polled would not get vaccinated because of concerns about possible side effects. But the demand for vaccination has risen over the last few days after infection rates doubled in one week.

The Robert Koch Institute has now registered more than 40,000 cases and recorded 12 deaths up to November 9.

The deaths of a 33-year-old woman in Aachen and a 33-year-old man in Munich from the H1N1 virus were reported in the media on Tuesday.

A spokesman of the Bavarian Federation of Pharmacists, Thomas Metz, said that there had been a leap in interest in vaccination.

"It is as if someone has flicked a switch," he said.

jg/AP/Reuters/dpa

Editor: Kate Bowen