EU licenses first pre-pandemic bird flu vaccine

By Ben Hirschler

LONDON (Reuters) - European authorities have approved the first pre-pandemic bird flu vaccine, Prepandrix, from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L), its maker said on Monday.

Europe's biggest drugmaker hopes the move will spur fresh stockpile orders from governments around the world.

Prepandrix is intended for use before or in the early stages of a flu pandemic. It triggers an immune response to the H5N1 strain of bird flu, which experts fear may trigger a widespread human flu outbreak threatening millions of people.

The official licence from the European Commission puts Glaxo ahead of rivals in the vaccine race. The green light had been expected, following a positive recommendation from experts at the European Medicines Agency in February.

So far, Glaxo has received orders for Prepandrix from a handful of governments, including the United States, Switzerland and Finland. In 2007, it sold 146 million pounds of its pre-pandemic vaccine and bulk antigen.

Now Glaxo's flu vaccine head Emmanuel Hanon expects more buyers to follow, justifying the $2 billion (1 billion pounds) his company has invested in increasing flu capacity.

"It's clear that some governments are more proactive than others ... the policy is evolving and I'm looking for some kind of alignment in terms of what governments are going to do," he told reporters.

"Governments are concerned by the real medical and economic threat of a pandemic."