The vaccine specific to Influenza A (H1N1) virus, formerly known as swine flu, will be available by November at the earliest. The predicted production timeline has been set back by two months from the earlier September schedule. The World Health Organization (WHO) has requested the vaccine makers to reserve a portion of the production for poor countries.

The WHO asks these companies to donate at least 10% of their production, or at least sell them at lower cost. In the event of a global pandemic of the virus, the poor countries are already expected to be unable to avail of said vaccine. Rich countries such as Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, and Switzerland have already placed millions of advanced orders for this flu vaccine to ensure their supply.

In a meeting with 30 major pharmaceutical multinationals, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon requested for ‘global solidarity in confronting the disease.’ Ban means that every citizen on earth must be able to have ‘access to drugs and vaccines.’

UK-based pharmaceutical multinational giant GlaxoSmithKline has immediately responded to the request and pledged that it will ‘donate 50 million doses in a pandemic and offer more that WHO could buy at a discount for poor countries.’

According to the WHO latest update of 08:00 GMT 23 May 2009, 43 countries have officially reported 12,022 cases of influenza A (H1N1) infection, including 86 deaths.

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Via The Wall Street Journal