Novartis ships first Fluvirin shots to USA

Swiss drug major Novartis has made the first flu vaccines available in the USA with the delivery and release of its first shipments of Fluvirin influenza virus vaccine for the 2006-2007 flu season.

The US Food and Drug Administration's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research released in early August the first lots of Fluvirin, positioning it to become the first trivalent inactivated flu shot available this year. The lots which were delivered and released to distributors correspond to more than one million doses of the vaccine.

Novartis' Vaccines unit intends to deliver the majority of its Fluvirin vaccine production by the end of October, with additional shipments expected through the end of this year.