Romanian AH1N1 Flu Vaccine Ten Times Cheaper Than Global Producers’ - Ex Health Min

Romania’s former Health Minister Ion Bazac said Romania received offers to buy vaccines to counter the AH1N1 flu from global producers as early as this summer, but it cost EUR2 per dose just to secure a spot on the waiting list, whereas the country can make its own vaccine for just EUR0.92 per dose.

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Bazac said late Monday on Realitatea TV that Romania could have secured vaccine stocks by now because it did receive offers from global producers, but underscored that the country's Cantacuzino Institute makes the vaccine for EUR0.92 per dose instead of EUR4.75 it would cost to get it from foreign producers.

Bazac also said the Romanian vaccine is of 15 milliliters while foreign producers make it at 7.5 milliliters and a double dose would have been needed. The minister concluded the Romanian vaccine is roughly ten times cheaper than what global wholesalers offer.

The country's Health Ministry has scrapped plans to buy one million doses of vaccine from global producers because they would have reached Romania in the first quarter of 2010 and the country needed them faster, until it made its own vaccine.

Health Ministry state secretary Adrian Streinu-Cercel said a vaccination campaign starts at the end of November, using Romanian-made Anti-grip. Romania's Cantacuzino Institute already has a stock of 1.3 million doses of vaccine, which will be used on medical staff, highschool and university students and border police staff. The institute said it can make about 5 million doses by the end of the year, which would cover about a quarter of the country's population.

Romania has registered 555 cases of AH1N1 infections since May when the first case of infection with the flu virus was reported, and 174 of them are undergoing treatment, while the rest are cured, Streinu-Cercel said Monday. The country has also put all its hospitals under quarantine to help prevent the spread of the virus.

The World Health Organization has so far counted over 6,000 fatal cases of AH1N1 flu worldwide.

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