Baxter International Inc. Sent Bird Flu Virus to European Labs by 'Error'

Baxter International Inc. Sent Bird Flu Virus to European Labs by 'Error'
Virus mix-up by lab could have resulted in pandemic

[Baxter International Inc.] released contaminated flu virus material from a plant in Austria confirmed Friday that the experimental product contained live H5N1 avian flu viruses.

“At this juncture we are confident in saying that public health and occupational risk is minimal at present,” medical officer Roberta Andraghetti said from Copenhagen, Denmark.

“But what remains unanswered are the circumstances surrounding the incident in the Baxter facility in Orth-Donau.”

The contaminated product, a mix of H3N2 seasonal flu viruses and unlabelled H5N1 viruses, was supplied to an Austrian research company. The Austrian firm, Avir Green Hills Biotechnology, then sent portions of it to sub-contractors in the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Germany.

The contamination incident, which is being investigated by the four European countries, came to light when the subcontractor in the Czech Republic inoculated ferrets with the product and they died. Ferrets shouldn’t die from exposure to human H3N2 flu viruses.

Public health authorities concerned about what has been described as a “serious error” on Baxter’s part have assumed the death of the ferrets meant the H5N1 virus in the product was live. But the company, Baxter International Inc., has been parsimonious about the amount of information it has released about the event.

Accidental release of a mixture of live H5N1 and H3N2 viruses could have resulted in dire consequences.

While H5N1 doesn’t easily infect people, H3N2 viruses do. If someone exposed to a mixture of the two had been simultaneously infected with both strains, he or she could have served as an incubator for a hybrid virus able to transmit easily to and among people.

Baxter hasn’t shed much light — at least not publicly — on how the accident happened. Earlier this week Bona called the mistake the result of a combination of “just the process itself, (and) technical and human error in this procedure.”

He said he couldn’t reveal more information because it would give away proprietary information about Baxter’s production process.

The H5N1 strain of avian flu has been monitored by health officials around the world for more than a decade for signs it could mutate into a form that is easily spread among humans. Currently, it passes mainly among infected poultry.

A flu pandemic of avian or other origin could kill more than 70 million people worldwide and lead to a “major global recession” costing more than $3 trillion, according to a worst- case scenario outlined by the World Bank in October.

H5N1 has infected at least 408 people in 15 countries since 2003, killing 63 percent of them, according to the Web site of the Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO).

In March, 2007, Indonesia, which has had more human cases of avian flu than any other country, has stopped sending samples of the virus to the World Health Organization, apparently because it has reached a deal to sell the samples to an American vaccine company [Baxter International Inc.], an official with the WHO said.

Celvapan, the first cell culture-based H5N1 (avian flu) pandemic vaccine, which is produced by Baxter, is to be used if the WHO officially declares a pandemic.

In November, 2005, among President G. W. Bush's list of pandemic emergency measures was a call for Congress to appropriate $1 billion explicitly for Tamiflu. Some question the motives of the U.S. government's endorsement and planned purchase of Tamiflu, noting Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's close ties to Gilead Sciences, rightsholder to the oseltamivir (Tamiflu) patent. Rumsfeld is a former chairman of Gilead, and federal disclosure forms indicate that he owns between USD$5 million and USD$25 million in Gilead stock.

for complete articles:

Baxter Sent Bird Flu Virus to European Labs by 'Error'
February 24, 2009
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aTo3LbhcA75I#


Baxter: Product contained live bird flu virus
February 27, 2009
http://www.torontosun.com/news/canada/2009/02/27/8560781.html


Virus mix-up by lab could have resulted in pandemic
March 6, 2009
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Health--Science/Science/Virus-mix-up-by-lab-could-have-resulted-in-pandemic/articleshow/4230882.cms


Bird Flu: A Corporate Bonanza for the Biotech Industry
November 6, 2005
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=ENG20051106&articleId=119


Indonesia sells its avian flu samples to U.S. company
February 7, 2007
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/07/news/flu.php


Baxter Receives EMEA Positive Opinion for CELVAPAN, The First Cell Culture-Based Pandemic Flu Vaccine
December 23, 2008
http://www.fiercebiotech.com/press-releases/baxter-receives-emea-positive-opinion-celvapan-first-cell-culture-based-pandemic-flu-