Europe, January 03: France has joined other European countries in selling millions of emergency swine flu vaccines after buying far more than it needed to fight the outbreak, its government said.
France decided to sell some of its vaccine cache after European medical authorities said a single vaccination was enough to protect against the virus.
“We started with a plan for two-dose vaccinations but since one dose is sufficient we can start to resell part of the stock,” a French health ministry official said.
Like some other European nations, France witnessed less demand than expected after spending €869m (US$1.25bn) on vaccines for the A(H1N1) virus.
It bought 94m doses, almost one and a half per person, but since the program launched in October only about five million people are recorded as having been vaccinated.
France’s health ministry said Qatar bought 300,000 doses, Egypt was negotiating to buy two million and there are also discussions with Mexico and Ukraine.
Germany said in December it was looking to sell vaccines as well, even though its full order of 50m doses was not due to be delivered until March. Only about five percent of its population has been vaccinated.
—Agencies