Flu vaccine 'positively received'
19 Dec 2008
A flu vaccine has received positive opinion in the European Union, Sanofi Pasteur has announced.
The firm - a division of the Sanofi-Aventis Group - said the intradermal microinjection IDflu vaccine has been recommended by the European Medicines Agency.
It is a step towards marketing approval for the vaccine, which was submitted to the agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use in February following clinical trials involving over 7,000 patients.
Sanofi Pasteur produced 180 million doses of seasonal flu medication in 2007 and the company estimates that it supplies 40 per cent of the world flu vaccine market.
Last week, Sanofi-Aventis and Bristol-Myers Squibb had a patent infringement decision upheld in the US Court of Appeals.
The ruling had originally been made in June 2007 in a district court in New York regarding clopidogrel bisulphate.
Sanofi and Bristol-Myers are seeking damages from Apotex, which marketed a generic version of Plavix containing the active ingredient.
