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Vaccines: The Week in Review9 August 2010Center for Vaccine Ethics & Policy

http://centerforvaccineethicsandpolicy.wordpress.com/

A program of - Center for Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania

http://www.bioethics.upenn.edu/

- The Wistar Institute Vaccine Cente

http://www.wistar.org/vaccinecenter/default.html

- Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Vaccine Education Center

http://www.chop.edu/consumer/jsp/microsite/microsite.jsp

This weekly summary targets news and events in the global vaccines field gathered from key governmental, NGO and company announcements, key journals and events. This summary provides support for ongoing initiatives of the Center for Vaccine Ethics & Policy, and is not intended to be exhaustive in its coverage.Vaccines: The Week in Review is now also posted in a blog format at

http://centerforvaccineethicsandpolicy.wordpress.com/

. Each item is treated as an individual post on the blog, allowing for more effective retrospective searching. Given emailsystem conventions and formats, you may find this alternative more effective. Thisblog also allows for RSS feeds, etc.Comments and suggestions should be directed toDavid R. Curry, MSEditor and Executive Director Center for Vaccine Ethics & Policy

david.r.curry@centerforvaccineethicsandpolicy.org

[Editor’s Note:

Vaccines: The Week in Review

will resume publicationon 30 August 2010 and will provide a summary of news,announcements and journal activity covering the intervening periodfrom 9 August 2010]

The WHO continues to issue weekly updates and occasional briefing noteson the H1N1 pandemic athttp://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en/index.html

Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 - update 112Weekly update6 August 2010

As of 1 August 2010, worldwide more than 214 countries and overseasterritories or communities have reported laboratory confirmed cases of pandemic influenza H1N1 2009, including over 18449 deaths….

Situation update:

The overall situation remains largely unchanged since the last update.Globally, pandemic influenza transmission remains most active in parts of South Asia and in limited areas of tropical South and Central America. In thetemperate zone of the southern hemisphere, overall seasonal and pandemicinfluenza activity remains low, except in South Africa, where peak wintertimeinfluenza transmission due to circulating seasonal influenza viruses (H3N2and type B) might have recently occurred. Seasonal influenza viruses,

particularly H3N2 viruses, continue to circulate in parts of Central America,East Africa, and Southeast Asia…http://www.who.int/csr/don/2010_08_06/en/index.html

[Editor’s Note: We will occasionally include announcements by commercialorganizations that pertain to vaccine ethics and policy issues we are tracking,such as strategies to enhance influenza vaccine uptake. We make noendorsement of the strategy or assessment of its potential impact or propriety.]

Walgreens Offering Flu Shot Gift Cards

Walgreens, describing itself as “the largest retail provider of flu preventionservices with more than 24,000 certified immunizers,” said it introduced theflu shot gift card as “a way to help more Americans stay well throughout theupcoming flu season by giving the gift of a flu shot.” Kermit R. Crawford,Walgreens executive vice president of pharmacy, commented, “Whether youhave college kids going back to school or have friends, co-workers or familymembers you want to protect this flu season, the flu shot gift card is athoughtful way to make it even easier for them to get a flu shot at Walgreens.While millions of Americans are diligent about getting a flu shot every year,gift cards may also help those who might not otherwise take the initiative toget a flu shot. With these gift cards, you can help protect those closest toyou.”http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20100803006837&newsLang=en

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America(PhRMA) issued the following statement today regarding efforts toenhance transparency:

“PhRMA and its member companies have a longstanding commitment tothe ethical conduct of clinical trials and to increasing transparency byreporting more information about clinical trials.“We are always looking for ways to enhance our voluntary industry codesand, to this end, supported a joint position statement in June with theInternational Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations toenhance publication of clinical research. The joint statement calls forpublication of summaries of all Phase III clinical trials and all clinical trials of significant medical importance in peer-reviewed journals.“PhRMA’s commitment to enhanced transparency of clinical research is inaddition to our member companies’ unanimous support of PhRMA’s recentlyrevised Principles on Conduct of Clinical Trials and Communication of Clinical Trial Results, which call for registration and online publication of summariesof all clinical trials in patients for approved medicines. What’s more, PhRMA’sClinical Trial Principles also call for our member companies to disclosesummaries of all clinical trials in patients for investigational medicines whosedevelopment programs have been discontinued.“It is our hope that the additional transparency of PhRMA’s membercompanies will benefit patients and healthcare professionals. PhRMA has also

supported continued development of the federal clinical trial database,ClinicalTrials.gov.“The study, published today by the ‘Annals of Internal Medicine,’demonstrates one more way that patients and the public health can benefitfrom increased transparency: The study would not have been possiblewithout the large volume of information about ongoing and completedindustry-sponsored clinical trials provided through ClinicalTrials.gov andsupported by PhRMA and its member companies.“While our review of the study continues, it is important to note that theauthors acknowledge that industry-funded trials tended to be for later stagesin the lengthy drug development process. As the authors note, ‘Later-phasetrials may be more likely to have positive outcomes, because there is morecertainty about the drug’s efficacy and safety at this advanced stage in thedrug-development cycle.’“Developing a new medicine is costly, time-consuming and the odds of success are quite low. At the earliest stage of discovery, researchers closelyanalyze up to 10,000 compounds of interest. By the time clinical tests occurin humans, more than 10 years later, promising therapies have beenwinnowed from the thousands to single digits.“PhRMA companies lead the world in the search for new cures. Our membercompanies invested an estimated $45.8 billion in 2009 alone to discover andto develop new medicines.” (August 2, 2010)http://www.phrma.org/news/news/phrma_statement_supporting_enhanced_transparencyThe

Weekly Epidemiological Record (WER) for 6 August 2010

, vol.85, 32 includes: Rabies vaccines: WHO position paperhttp://www.who.int/wer/2010/wer8532.pdf

Journal Watch

[Editor’s Note]

Vaccines: The Week in Review

continues its weekly scanning of key journalsto identify and cite articles, commentary and editorials, books reviews andother content supporting our focus on vaccine ethics and policy.

Journal Watch

is not intended to be exhaustive, but indicative of themes andissues the Center is actively tracking.

We selectively provide full text of some editorial and comment articles that are specifically relevant to ourwork. Successful access to some of the links provided may requiresubscription or other access arrangement unique to the publisher. Our initialscan list includes the journals below. If you would like to suggest other titles,please write to David Curry atdavid.r.curry@centerforvaccineethicsandpolicy.org

Clinical Infectious Diseases

1 September 2010 Volume 51, Number 5