WHO: Flu virus samples to be shared globally

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Flu virus samples to be shared globally

Samples of flu viruses will be shared across the world in return for the

vaccines that are produced from them.

World Health Organization has brokered a deal resolving a long-running dispute

between poorer countries and developed nations over access to emerging flu

viruses and vaccines against them.

Under the agreement, finalized Saturday after an all-night final bargaining

session, vaccine manufacturers commit to setting aside at least 10 percent of

the world's flu vaccine production for developing nations when the next flu

pandemic strikes. Poorer countries would either get vaccine free or pay reduced

prices for it.

In return, developing nations agree to routinely share samples of mutating flu

viruses with the WHO. That's an essential piece of the world's surveillance

mechanism for viruses with pandemic potential and is critical to the development

of effective vaccines.

The dispute was triggered back in 2007, when Indonesia refused to share samples

of the highly lethal H5N1 bird flu virus because, it said, there was no

assurance it would get access to vaccine developed as a result.

Indonesia's fears were borne out in the pandemic of 2009-2010. That pandemic was

caused, as it turned out, by a new swine flu virus rather than H5N1. Mexico,

where the pandemic virus first emerged, " had a terrifically difficult time

getting access to the pandemic vaccine, " Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the WHO's top flu

expert, tells Shots. " It was really a problem for them. "

That's because rich countries had signed agreements with vaccine manufacturers

that tied up virtually the entire planet's flu vaccine output.

It took four years of negotiations to break the deadlock over the

no-vaccine/no-virus issue. Recent history was a catalyst. " We went through a

pandemic not so long ago, so the issues were no longer theoretical, " Fukuda

says.

In addition, Fukuda says nations realized that the opportunity to reach an

agreement might slip away. That added pressure because without continuous

sharing of notoriously mutable flu viruses, the world could be surprised again

by a new pandemic strain. And the next one could be far more lethal than the

2009 H1N1 strain.

The agreement, which the World Health Assembly is expected to ratify next month

at its annual meeting in Geneva, commits pharmaceutical companies to choosing

two of six options.

Manufacturers can donate at least 10 percent of " real-time pandemic vaccine

production " to WHO, or they can reserve at least that much " at affordable

prices " for WHO to distribute.

They can donate an unspecified number of antiviral treatment courses to WHO or

reserve some quantity of antivirals at reduced prices.

Manufacturers can grant licenses to companies in developing countries on " fair

and reasonable " terms to make flu vaccines, antiviral drugs, diagnostic tests or

adjuvants (immune-boosting vaccine additives).

Or manufacturers can grant royalty-free licenses to counterparts in developing

countries to make such products.

The aim of those last two options is to spread flu vaccine manufacturing

capacity more broadly. Now it's almost entirely based in developed nations.

Fukuda says manufacturers have also agreed not to file patents on flu viruses

they obtain from laboratories working with WHO. He says the agreement

" recognizes that if you are sharing something for public health purposes, the

labs will treat it as a public health good, " not a marketable commodity.

Manufacturers have also committed to funding half the WHO's Global Influenza

Surveillance and Response Program, which had a 2010 budget ot $56.5 million.

As with all WHO agreements, the new document is studded with terms such as

" should urge " and " may grant. " But Fukuda says Indonesia, which forced the whole

issue, was " overall quite pleased " with the outcome.

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