Flu Vaccine Column

Flu Vaccine Column

Weekly Column by Senator Susan M. Collins

This year's unexpected shortage of flu vaccine was a result of vaccine doses becoming contaminated during production. On October 5th, Chiron Corporation, a California-based biotechnology company, notified U.S.. health officials that British regulators had suspended production of flu vaccine in its plant in Liverpool, England, due to safety concerns. Chiron is one of just two manufacturers of injectable flu vaccine for the U.S. market, and the plant had been slated to provide about half the planned nationwide supply of 100 million doses. The failure at Chiron's plan not only precipitated the current shortage, but also highlighted our country's unhealthy reliance on too few manufacturers for our vaccine supply.

While long-term measures are needed to increase our nation's capacity to manufacture vaccine, our immediate focus should be on maximizing the use of the existing vaccine supply. After all, the flu is responsible for as many as 36,000 American deaths and more than 200,000 hospitalizations each year, so we must do our best to make the vaccine available to those high-risk individuals who need them.

The Senate Special Committee on Aging, of which I am a member, was concerned about this issue even before the announcement of this year's shortage. On September 28th, the Committee held a hearing at which both federal health officials and the CEO of Chiron said that the U.S. would have plenty of flu vaccine available for the upcoming flu season. Ironically, this took place exactly one week before the announcement that Chiron Corporation's license to manufacture flu vaccine was revoked.

Since that time, I have been working with my colleagues to find ways to remedy the current problem and avoid similar problems in the future.