Human rabies vaccines harder to find this year
Scripps Howard News Service
Nothing becomes dearer than a medicine in short supply.
Whether it's preventive antibiotics during the anthrax-letter attacks seven years ago or periodic seasonal shortages of flu shots, medical shortages can impose systems of rationing that Americans usually tolerate only in wartime or with hot Christmas toys.
And increasingly, patients find themselves in the clutches of a world market supplied by just a handful of companies making something people literally can't live without.
That's what has happened this year with human rabies vaccines.
Two companies, Novartis and Sanofi Pasteur, make vaccines that are licensed for use in people exposed to rabies in the United States. Except, since mid-2007, Sanofi hasn't been making any, and Novartis encountered production problems that ran afoul of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, suspending shipments for several months.
Sanofi officials thought they had stockpiled plenty of their vaccine before they started renovating their production facility in France. They planned on resuming operations next summer or fall.
Along with the supply problems, demand also increased worldwide with new outbreaks of the virus reported in domestic and wild animals. Click here for the full story.
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