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Monday, October 11, 2004The Food and Drug Administration is unlikely to clear influenza vaccine made by Chiron Corp. as safe for Americans to use this flu season, Dr. Lester M. Crawford, the agency's acting commissioner, said Friday. Crawford's pessimism came as FDA officials in England met with Chiron officials and were poised to begin an in-depth inspection of the company's Liverpool vaccine production facility on Saturday and Sunday. Crawford was asked at a congressional hearing whether the agency was likely to coax free 40 million impounded doses of flu vaccine that Chiron testing indicated were free of contamination with the bacteria. 'It's not possible to say if any of them are salvageable at this point,' Crawford testified. 'I have to present to you a pessimistic point of view ... I'd like to be able to say that there is some optimism.' Crawford told reporters afterward that the FDA likely would have made the same decision its British counterparts did: suspending Chiron's vaccine production and exports due to manufacturing problems. But maybe if the vaccine had been produced on our shores rather than overseas, we could have taken steps to have a back-up supply when problems first became evident - like the British reportedly did. posted by Sydney on 10/11/2004 08:47:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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