19.05.2008

A marketing licence by the European Commission for GSK's H5N1, has been granted in all 27 member states. The pre-pandemic vaccine, Prepandrix™ is the first vaccine of its kind to be granted a European licence.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), vaccines are the most important intervention for preventing influenza and reducing its health consequences during a pandemic. The benefit of a pre-pandemic vaccine is that it can be produced and stockpiled in advance of an influenza pandemic, offering European governments the potential for protecting their population before or at the onset of an officially declared influenza pandemic. The vaccine has also shown cross-protection in preclinical studies, preventing mortality in 96% of cases following two doses of adjuvanted vaccine. The studies also demonstrated that the vaccine is generally well tolerated.