מתוך medicontext.co.il
By Richard Woodman
LONDON (Reuters Health) – The Franco-American vaccines joint venture Aventis Pasteur MSD has launched in the UK a combination vaccine for typhoid and hepatitis A, which it says is faster-acting and cheaper than GlaxoSmithKline's rival product.
Named ViATIM, the new vaccine, launched on October 1, combines the company's TYPHIM Vi for typhoid fever and AVAXIM for hepatitis A in a single injection that protects against both infections within 14 days.
UK product manager Laura Migozzi told Reuters Health on Tuesday that ViATIM had been licensed by the UK Medicines Control Agency and would be rolled out across the European Union under the mutual recognition procedure.
She said that while GSK's combination vaccine Hepatyrix protects against typhoid within two weeks, it took four weeks to protect against hepatitis A. The National Health Service price of ViATIM was £32.49–£2 cheaper than Hepatyrix.
Migozzi said that vaccination against the two diseases is a major component of the estimated £80 million spent each year on travel vaccines in the UK, one of the few countries in Europe where vaccination is fully paid for by the state.
In a news release, the company said that the vaccine was suitable for travellers to countries where typhoid and hepatitis A were endemic and who needed dual protection, "including those who have left their vaccinations to the last minute before travelling."
Dr. George Kassianos, secretary of the British Travel Health Association, said, "The typhoid fever and hepatitis A combination is particularly useful as the worldwide distribution of both diseases is similar and travellers to developing countries will often need immunisation against both diseases."
The company said that ViATIM uses an innovative dual-chamber syringe technology with both vaccines being kept within separate chambers in the same syringe. This preserved the benefits of the individual vaccines until just before vaccination, when they were mixed.
Aventis Pasteur MSD is jointly owned by Aventis Pasteur and Merck and operates in 19 European countries. Turnover in 2000 was 594 million euros.
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