미국에서 생산된 신종플루 백신의 1/4 가량이 유효기간이 끝났다는 소식입니다. 다시 말해 4000만명분(2억6천만 달러)이 폐기될 예정이라고 합니다.

7월 7일자(수요일)로 유효기간이 끝나는 백신들은 소각처리될 예정이라고 하며, 폐기되는 백신은 일반적인 계절성 독감 백신 폐기와 비교할 때 4배가 더 많다고 합니다.

추가로 유효기간이 끝나가는 백신이 3000만명분이라고 하니… 미국에 공급된 백신의 43%가 폐기될 것으로 예상됩니다.

이 엄청난 공적자금의 낭비를 누가 책임질 것인지 궁금합니다. 지난 2009년 신종플루(돼지독감) 대유행 과장으로 인해서 초국적 제약기업들은 경기침체에도 불구하고 천문학적인 수익을 남겼습니다.

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Swine flu vaccine worth $260M will be disposed of as trash

By Mike Stobbe THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

출처 : Worcester Telegram & Gazette Friday, July 2, 2010
http://www.telegram.com/article/20100702/NEWS/7020419/1052/RSS01&source=rss

ATLANTA —  About a quarter of the swine flu vaccine produced for the U.S. public has expired — meaning that a whopping 40 million doses worth about $260 million are being written off as trash.

“It’s a lot, by historical standards,” said Jerry Weir, who oversees vaccine research and review for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The outdated vaccine, some of which expired Wednesday, will be incinerated. The amount, as much as four times the usual leftover seasonal flu vaccine, likely sets a record. And that’s not even all of it.

About 30 million more doses will expire later and may go unused, according to one government estimate. If all that vaccine expires, more than 43 percent of the supply for the U.S. public will have gone to waste.

Federal officials defended the huge purchase as a necessary risk in the face of a never-before-seen virus. Many health experts had feared the new flu could be the deadly global epidemic they had long warned about, but it ended up killing fewer people than seasonal flu.

“Although there were many doses of vaccine that went unused, it was much more appropriate to have been prepared for the worst case scenario than to have had too few doses,” said Bill Hall, spokesman for U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.