GSK Ships Flu Vaccine

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) announced July 16, 2015 that it has begun shipping its Fluarix Quadrivalent (influenza vaccine) doses to US healthcare providers, following licensing and lot-release approval from FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. The company announced that it had shifted its supply to four-strain (quadrivalent) flu vaccine rather than trivalent vaccine.

"With flu a priority focus of our portfolio, we have made a significant investment in customer service upgrades, designed to accelerate delivery timelines to customers,” said said Patrick Desbiens, senior vice-president, US Vaccines, in a press release. GSK also has received 2015–2016 US license approval for its other quadrivalent flu vaccine, Flulaval Quadrivalent (influenza vaccine). Pending additional FDA lot releases, GSK expects to begin shipping Flulaval Quadrivalent in August 2015. Fluarix Quadrivalent comes in a 0.5-mL, single-dose, prefilled syringe while Flulaval Quadrivalent comes in a 5-mL, multidose vial containing 10 doses (0.5 mL each). Fluarix Quadrivalent is manufactured in Dresden, Germany. Flulaval Quadrivalent is manufactured in Ste-Foy, Quebec, Canada.

GSK expects to supply an estimated 32–38 million doses across both vaccines for the US market for the 2015–2016 season. The company shipped approximately 27 million doses for the 2014–2015 season (19 million quadrivalent and eight million trivalent). This year’s anticipated volume of quadrivalent doses is nearly double the amount shipped in 2014. GSK made the decision to switch to 100% quadrivalent following customer demand from the 2014–2015 flu season and early prebooking for the 2015–2016 season.