Glaxo sees big orders for bird flu shot

By Ben Hirschler

NEW YORK (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) hopes to win new orders from two big countries for its bird flu vaccine for humans by the year-end, fueling substantial sales of the product in 2007, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

So far, Switzerland and an unnamed small Asian country have ordered the pre-pandemic H5N1 shot -- which has yet to win final regulatory approval -- but governments of several larger countries are in negotiations.

"I think that between now and Christmas we are going to hear from a couple of important countries," Jean-Pierre Garnier told the Reuters Health Summit in New York via a telephone interview from London.

Glaxo could next year produce more than 100 million doses of the vaccine, which is designed to immunize people against a future pandemic flu strain and will probably sell for between 7 and 8 euros ($8.94-$10.22) per dose, he added.

Switzerland ordered 8 million doses of Glaxo's H5N1 vaccine to protect its entire population in the event of an influenza pandemic, which many experts fear may be triggered by bird flu, but other governments may take a more conservative approach.

"Some countries are buying partially, not necessarily stockpiling for every single person living in the country," Garnier said.

"Most governments are very serious about this. They realize it's not a foolproof solution, it's a safety net if the vaccine mutates within the H5N1 space. If there is a wild mutation away from H5N1, then it is not the final solution."

Vaccines, ignored by investors for many years, are an important driver for Europe's biggest drugmaker in the years ahead -- particularly its experimental cervical cancer shot.  Continued...