Monday June 22, 03:05 PM
UPDATE 1-Solvay misses out on Dutch H1N1 vaccine contract
AMSTERDAM, June 22 (Reuters) - Belgium's Solvay (Brussels: SOLB.BR - news) said on Monday it missed out on a Dutch government
contract to supply the Netherlands with an H1N1 flu virus vaccine because it could not supply the product within the required timeframe.
Solvay shares extended losses after Solvay's announcement and were down 3.8 percent at 57.93 euros at 1341 GMT, underperforming a 3 percent decline in the DJ Stoxx chemical index.
The Dutch government said last week it had bought 34 million vaccines from various vaccine makers, but did not identify which companies. It added that it had agreed with suppliers the vaccine had to be made available by the end of 2009.
'The Dutch government has placed its order with other vaccine producers as Solvay cannot deliver pandemic vaccines in the timeline asked by the Dutch government,' Solvay spokesman Erik De Leye said.
But he added the option the Dutch government earlier placed with Solvay for the supply of a pandemic vaccine remained valid.
That option had been placed with Solvay prior to the World Health Organisation declaring an influenza pandemic earlier this month. Other leading flu vaccine makers include Sanofi (Paris: FR0000120578 - news) -Aventis , GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK.L - news) and Novartis (Virt-X: NOVN.VX - news) .
There have been 105 people infected with the H1N1 virus in the Netherlands, but no deaths have been reported.
(Reporting by Aaron Gray-Block; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter) Keywords: SOLVAY/
|
Send Article by Email
Send Article by IM
Blog This with Y! 360
Printable View
