All Nature’s pandemic flu coverage is collected on our news special page.

Pharma companies have been left fretting over sales of the H1N1 vaccine after France cancelled a huge chunk of its order for jabs.

The French health ministry announced on 4 January that it was terminating orders for 50 million of the 94 million doses initially ordered. Millions more doses are being sold to other countries including Qatar and Egypt.

Opposition parties in France are attempting to make political capital out of the issue, attacking French president Nicolas Sarkozy over his handling of vaccine ordering and claiming that pharma companies have been the major beneficiaries of the government’s actions.

Take up of H1N1 vaccination has been poor in many countries and initial fears that two doses would be needed to confer immunity have been easing recently. Other countries – including Germany, Spain and Switzerland – have also cancelled vaccine orders (Reuters). Share prices in pharma companies have not responded well to these pieces of news.

See also

WHO-led H1N1 vaccine redistribution may be scaled back as countries reassess need – Canadian Press

Sarkozy under fire on flu vaccine ‘fiasco’ – Financial Times

En Francais

Le gouvernement revoit sa stratégie antigrippe A – Le Monde

H1N1 : un coût de plus d’un milliard d’euros – Le Figaro

Grippe A : ne pas se tromper de débat – Yves Threard, Le Figaro