Friday, January 29, 2010

Serbia and Japan to Cancel Further Vaccine Imports

Serbia and Japan are the latest countries to join the list of nations canceling further purchases of H1N1 vaccine.

Serbian Health Minister Tomica Milosavljevic announced Wednesday that “Serbia paid for 857,500 doses. Out of that amount, 160,000 were administered to citizens”. He added that the country needs to have 300,000 doses in its permanent reserves in case the epidemiological situation deteriorates.

Serbia has registered 690 swine flu cases so far and has experienced 79 fatalities from the virus. On Tuesday, Novartis warned countries not to cancel their orders for the vaccine, stressing that priority in a future epidemic would be given to those states which honored their contract obligations.

Meanwhile, according to Kyodo News, the government of Japan is considering canceling some of its H1N1 flu vaccine purchase contracts with foreign pharmaceutical companies amid the prospect of a surplus in vaccines against the new flu virus, health minister Akira Nagatsuma said Monday.

Source:
http://home.kyodo.co.jp/modules/fstStory/index.php?storyid=482214
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/25273

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