| Canada stops the flu vaccine |
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 Pharmaceutical company Glaxo Smith Kline vaccine against swine flu in Canada resulted in five times more allergic reactions than expected. Now the company urges physicians not to use the latest delivery. The vaccine which is now temporarily halted in Canada called Arepanrix and manufactured in Quebec, Canada. According to Peter Featured Kvist, pharmacists at the Medical Products Agency in Uppsala, contains the Canadian vaccine, the same ingredients Pandemrix - the vaccine for use against swine flu in Sweden. "But the production rate now seems to present problems in Canada is not in Sweden, he points out. He also says that even if vaccines are factually identical, so there may be technical differences in production. One of 20 000 persons who received the latest delivery of the vaccine Arepanrix in Canada has had serious side effects such as difficulty breathing, elevated heart rate and skin rashes, reports the BBC. On average expect the company to just one of 100 000 people may suffer from similar problems. According to Jonas Vikman, information manager at Glaxo Smithkline in Sweden, believed the severe reactions linked to the latest batch, which consists of 172 000 doses of vaccine. "It's a small batch and the whole set is not distributed. But exactly what the problem stems from the fact we do not know, this investigation right now by Glaxo SmithKline with drug authorities in Canada, "he says. Glaxo SmithKline now call health authorities in Canada not to use batch. "We have not withdrawn the vaccine and pharmaceutical authorities have not stopped there. But we urge doctors not to use the vaccine temporarily until the investigation is complete, "says Jonas Vikman. According to the doctor Gunilla Sjolin-Forsberg, head of pharmacovigilance at the MPA, has also given Pandemrix more allergic reactions than expected in Sweden. "We have seen that the sensitization phenomena are slightly higher than expected since we began reporting on the vaccine," she says. Japanese authorities, which has ordered 37 million doses of vaccine from Glaxo Smith Kline, sends now a health care team to Canada to follow the investigation there. -I expect we will get all the information about adverse events in Canada through the European Medicines Agency, said Peter Kvist Star. What can go wrong in the manufacturing process? -A lot can go wrong but if you have good governance and security, nothing goes wrong, "he says. The vaccine consists of two components to be mixed before it is given, an antigen and an adjuvant. Can anything go wrong when these are mixed together? -No, it should not be. There are simple routines that nursing staff have to follow, "said Peter Kvist Star. Each batch, batch, controlled not only by the company but also by a competent authority before they are released on the market, The supplies arriving in Sweden has so far been verified by the drug authorities in Great Britain, Germany and France, according to Jonas Vikman. The shipment, consisting of 658 000 doses Pandemrix who were late and would arrive in Sweden at the beginning of the week is now expected to arrive by the end of the week, he said. |
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