Vaccine shortage yields political peril

While it's clear that manufacturing practice missteps can have financial consequences, it turns out that manufacturing capacity issues can have political consequences. Canada's National Post reports that GlaxoSmithKline's production delays for H1N1 vaccine are causing more than just PR headaches for the government. 

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq is under fire after the decision last week to suspend H1N1 vaccination in Alberta clinics because of the vaccine shortage. Alberta's opposition Liberals are calling for the health minister to resign over the matter. Canadian officials learned that insufficient supplies of only 625,000 doses were available for shipment to clinics.

"I'm disappointed," Aglukkaq says in a press report. "GSK overstated what they would be able to produce." The capacity shortfall is being blamed on the drug giant's need to produce an un-adjuvanted vaccine for pregnant women.

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