Israel is taking steps to be first in line to receive shipments of the swine flu vaccine as soon as manufacturers begin to roll out the doses.
Health and Finance Ministry officials signed a deal on Saturday to purchase a shipment of H1N1 flu vaccine from the Swiss pharmaceutical firm Novartis. According to the company's website, the U.S. government has also signed two contracts for the vaccine, in deals totaling $979 million. France, the Netherlands and Switzerland have placed orders with the company for the vaccine as well.
The deal calls for faster product delivery, which is slated to arrive before 2010. The current agreement calls for Israel to receive enough doses of the vaccine to cover at least a third of the population by January 2010.
“The Israeli government is prepared to work with even more drug companies according to the country’s needs,” a Health Ministry official said.
The deal follows a similar agreement signed a week ago with French manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur, which expects to deliver its first shipments to Israel sometime in early 2010.
Both deals, each totalling approximately NIS 7 million ($1.85 million) were approved by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman.
The Health Ministry has estimated Israel will need up to a million doses to vaccinate those at risk of developing medical complications from the H1N1 virus.
Drug-Resistant Strain Appears in U.S.
Two cases of a drug-resistant strain of the swine flu has appeared in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that both were diagnosed in Seattle over the weekend.
The strain, which is resistant to the anti-viral medication Tamiflu, appeared in other countries around the world beginning in June, including Japan, Singapore, China, Denmark and Canada.
No cases of person-to-person transmission of the Tamiflu-resistant strain have yet emerged, however, and none of the cases has appeared in Israel.
The Israeli government has said it will soon provide funds to establish five more labs to test for the H1N1 virus.
Tamiflu and Relenza, a second anti-viral used to battle influenza, both work by disabling an enzyme that is used by the virus during growth and reproduction.
Tamiflu is especially popular around the world because it is taken in the form of a capsule. Relenza, which must be inhaled, is less convenient, especially for those with respiratory difficulties.