France to sell off surplus flu jabs
Government spent €675m on two jabs per person but it has now emerged that only one dose is needed
THE FRENCH government has confirmed it is trying to sell off millions of swine flu vaccines to foreign countries because it bought too many.
Le Parisien revealed yesterday that France has been trying to "discreetly" resell the surplus stock for the past two months.
The government bought 94 million doses in July, at a total cost of €675 million, acting on early medical advice that two jabs were needed. However the European Medicines Agency ruled in November that only one dose of the vaccine per person is needed.
According to the newspaper, the health and foreign ministries are now in talks with at least six countries that need extra doses - Qatar, Egypt, Mexico, Bulgaria, Romania and Ukraine.
They are offering the spare vaccines at cost price - between €6 and €10 depending on the type of jab, as special doses are needed for pregnant women and anyone with an allergy to eggs.
The government has already donated 10% of its stock - 9.4 million doses - to the World Health Organisation to be redistributed in developing countries.
A spokesman for the government's swine flu "crisis cell" said: "Negotiations are underway with different countries. We will not say which ones, for confidentiality reasons."
France is not the only European country trying to offload its surplus vaccines. Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands are in a similar situation.
The Institut du Veille Sanitaire says between 8 and 15 million people have caught swine flu in France and 198 people have died.
According to flu watchdog Grog, 406,000 people were ill with the virus over the Christmas week, down from 632,000 in the previous week. About 5 million people have been vaccinated so far.
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