New York City joins Illinois in seeking flu vaccine

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New York City joined Illinois’ effort on Wednesday to acquire hundreds of thousands of doses of scarce flu vaccine from Europe, though U.S. regulatory approval of the transaction was still up in the air.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg thanked Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich for securing 200,000 vaccine doses at $10 apiece from French and German suppliers for the city’s most at-risk citizens.

Several weeks ago, Blagojevich, a Democrat, launched the drive to acquire vaccine doses through his month-old prescription drug importation program that uses a network of pharmacies in Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Blagojevich said he has secured 650,000 doses of flu vaccine—including 200,000 for New York City—from British maker GlaxoSmithKline’s German facility and France’s Aventis Pasteur, but was awaiting federal approval to ship it to the United States.

Wisconsin and New Mexico joined Illinois’ vaccine acquisition effort, though Wisconsin later dropped out, saying federal health authorities had promised enough doses to cover the state’s needs.

The Food and Drug Administration has given grudging support to the state’s effort to find flu vaccine, noting that it paralleled its own drive to get manufacturers to increase the supply to make up for a U.S. shortage. Manufacturing problems at British manufacturer Chiron Corp. eliminated 48 million of the anticipated U.S. supply of 100 million doses this year, prompting long lines at clinics and other facilities.

Aventis along with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control are to distribute more than 11 million additional doses to state and local health authorities, bringing the total U.S. supply to 60 million doses.

Blagojevich, whose drug importation program has appeared to be at odds with federal policies, said he believed the FDA was “acting in good faith” but hoped the inspection process could be sped up, especially now that New York was included.

“FDA has promised the governor of Illinois that the agency will work rapidly and steadfastly to evaluate the flu vaccines his state has located so that, if they can be safely distributed, it can be done so as soon as practicable,” the FDA said in a statement.

Bloomberg, who spoke to reporters in a conference call, commended Blagojevich for “saving lives” by acquiring additional doses of vaccine, and said pledges of an additional 275,000 doses from the federal government would essentially provide the 1.5 million doses needed for the city of 8 million.

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