Six more countries add Prevenar to their immunisation programmes
This article was originally published in Scrip
Executive Summary
Wyethhas praised six countries for including its seven-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, Prevenar, in their immunisation programmes. Cyprus, Bahrain, Hungary, Ireland, Slovakia and Sweden have become the latest countries to announce that they will routinely immunise infants against pneumococcal disease using Prevenar. This brings the total number of countries to include the vaccine in their programmes to 24, according to Wyeth. The company also points to Germany for proof of the vaccine's worth. "Since the introduction of PCV7 into Germany's paediatric immunisation schedule in 2006, there has been a 50% reduction in vaccine-type invasive pneumococcal disease in children younger than two years old compared with a pre-vaccine base-line", the company says. Pneumococcal disease leads to 1.6 million deaths a year across the world.