Glaxo starts to shift swine flu vaccine worth £2.2bn

GlaxoSmithKline today announced that it had started to dispatch its swine flu vaccine around the world.

Britain's largest pharma firm said that as well as the agreements it had already entered into, another 22 countries have placed orders for 149 million H1N1 vaccines.

Brentford-based Glaxo added that that brings the total number of doses ordered to 440 million, thought to be worth more than £2.2 billion.

Glaxo, which is expected to benefit from a greater-than-expected profit windfall because of the pandemic, also produces an anti-swine flu mask for front-line health workers and Relenza, an anti-viral drug taken by some H1N1 sufferers which had sales of £60 million in the six months to July.

Glaxo, the world's second-largest drug firm, also has a $250 million (£157 million) contract with the US government to supply swine flu-related products.

Glaxo started shipping the drug from its manufacturing plants in Dresden and Quebec this week.

It said it is still in discussions with governments around the world for providing more vaccine supplies.