News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Novartis's new cell-culture based influenza vaccine factory in North Carolina has begun making a prepandemic H5N1 flu vaccine and is ready to start producing vaccines for a real pandemic when needed, the company and federal health officials announced yesterday.

The facility in Holly Springs, N.C., billed as the first of its kind in the United States, was dedicated yesterday after a long testing process.

(CIDRAP News) – The Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) voted overwhelmingly today to endorse its health committee's controversial report that criticizes the handling of the H1N1 pandemic by the World Health Organization and European governments.

(CIDRAP News) – An article published by the British Medical Journal says three scientists who helped frame World Health Organization (WHO) guidance on pandemic influenza preparedness had consulted for pharmaceutical companies that stood to profit from the WHO guidance and that the WHO did not disclose the scientists' industry ties.

(CIDRAP News) – An international avian and pandemic flu meeting in Hanoi concluded yesterday, with health ministers and top officials from more than 70 countries agreeing on a set of strategies for responding to future disease threats.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) today said it is in the final stages of putting together an independent committee to review its preparation for and response to the H1N1 pandemic, a group of about 29 experts that will meet for the first time in the middle of April.