SWINE FLU

[The Borg]

An excerpt from a transcript of Quidel's (QDEL) conference call earlier this week:

And finally, as you are aware of the CDC published in MMWR regarding the first two cases of a Flu A H1N1 virus that occurred in period on San Diego, counties here in California, we have gotten some questions on the CDC's report so I will give you a brief update on what we know. First, let me quote from MMWR, "The viruses from the two cases that are closely related genetically resistant to amantadine and rimantadine and contain a unique combination of gene segments that previously has not been reported amongst swine or human influenza viruses in the United States or elsewhere. In addition, the MMWR report states although this is not a subtype of influenza A in humans, concern exist that this new strain of swine influenza A H1N1 is substantially different from human influenza A H1N1 viruses that a large proportion of the population might be susceptible to infection and that the seasonal influenza vaccine H1N1 strain might not provide protection. The lack of non-exposure to pigs in the two cases increases the possibility that human-to-human transmission of this new influenza virus has occurred."

Based upon that, let me tell you what Quidel is doing. We have contacted the San Diego County health department as well as the Texas State health department because one of the children traveled to Texas in early April and the CDC and we let each of them know that Quidel has product inventory that we can make available for immediate delivery should they request it. It is important to remember that while our test is appropriate for human, H1N1, its applicability in this case has not been determined and at this point, that is really all we can say about this issue.

http://seekingalpha.com/article/132451-quidel-corporation-f1q09-earnings-call-transcript?page=1