GSK says swine flu vaccine sales hit 835 million pounds
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Your support makes all the difference.British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline said Friday that sales of its swine flu vaccine products totalled 835 million pounds (944 million euros, 1.36 billion dollars) in the fourth quarter of last year.
"GSK today confirmed that approximately 130 million doses of its pandemic H1N1 adjuvanted vaccine were shipped to governments in the fourth quarter of 2009," the London-listed firm said in a statement.
"These shipments, together with pandemic vaccine products supplied to the US and other governments in the quarter, amount to provisional, unaudited sales of 835 million pounds."
GSK added: "The company is also donating 60 million doses of its vaccine to the WHO (World Health Organisation) for distribution to developing countries."
Earlier this week, GSK had said it had agreed to cut the amount of swine flu vaccines that had been ordered by Germany by around 70 percent to 34 million doses.
GSK had also revealed on Tuesday that many countries were amending their vaccine orders because one dose appeared to be sufficient to give a strong immune response.
The company added on Friday that it was in "ongoing" talks with governments about their H1N1 vaccine needs.
"Shipments of the vaccine continue to be delivered in the first half of 2010 and GSK is in ongoing discussions with many governments, as their needs evolve," it said.
"This includes renegotiation of contracts with governments who have announced changes to their planned immunisation programmes and with governments who have placed new orders for the pandemic vaccine.
"It is therefore too early to say what the final number of doses supplied and the value of these orders will be."
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