Drugmaker Sanof-Aventis to donate 100 million pandemic flu vaccine doses for poor countries

Sanof-Aventis to give pandemic flu vaccine to WHO

TRENTON, N.J. — The drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis says it will donate millions of doses of swine flu vaccine to the World Health Organization for poor countries.

Chief Executive Christopher Viehbacher (VEE’bahk-er) said Wednesday his company is making a “flexible donation” of a total of 100 million doses of vaccines against swine flu and bird flu.

The French company last June pledged to donate 60 million doses of pandemic vaccine against the bird flu virus then circulating in some countries.

Viehbacher says once his company starts production of vaccine against swine flu, or H1N1 flu, it will reserve 10 percent of its output to help fight the flu pandemic in developing countries.

He made the announcement at a Seattle conference on medicine and public health.