US to Purchase Flu Vaccine

After a long disputed topic in the Presidential debates the United States has set out to do exactly what John Kerry wanted, buy the vaccine from other countries like Germany and Canada.

The United States hopes to buy almost 5.2 million flu vaccines from these foreign companies. The US hopes to buy 1.2 million from Germany and the other some 4 million from Canadian manufacturers.

The United States first learned of its shortage when a British company, Chiron, lost nearly 48 million vaccines due to contamination. The US originally hoped on receiving nearly 100 million vaccines, but instead received just 55 million.

The US responded to public outcry by sending Food and Drug inspectors to the German Plant GlaxoSmithKline and Canadian ID Biomedical early last month.

As of now there are only two companies, Chiron and Aventis, which are eligible to send vaccines to the United States. However Glaxo and ID Biomedical hope to join the elite two by 2007 and continue to send vaccines for years to come.