Sanofi (SNY)

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Bush To Meet With Vaccine Manufacturers Friday

06 Oct 18:27

(Updates the names of the companies Bush will meet with.)

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Amid increasing concern over avian flu, U.S.

President George W. Bush will meet with the heads of vaccine-manufacturing
companies Friday to discuss ways to expand the mass production of a flu
vaccine, the White House said Thursday.

The chief executive officers of Chiron Corp. (CHIR), Sanofi-Aventis (SNY),
Wyeth (WYE), GlaxoSmithKline (SKBEECHAM.LA) Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) and
MedImmune Inc. (MEDI) will meet with Bush at 2:00 p.m. Friday, the White House
said.

A number of manufacturers have stopped producing vaccines because of their
exposure to lawsuits. Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said the issue will be
discussed in the meeting.

"One of the concerns that manufacturers have had is certainly the issue of
liability and lawsuits," McClellan said.

The president also met with his top advisers Thursday in the White House to
discuss avian flu, and how the government can prepare for a potential outbreak.

Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt told the Wall Street
Journal in an interview Thursday that the administration will put forth a plan
to ensure a more robust domestic vaccine industry. The newspaper said a $6
billion to $10 billion request will be sent to Congress.

"The good news is, we do have a vaccine," Leavitt said on CBS's The Early
Show. "The bad news is we don't have the capacity ... to manufacture it fast
enough or in large-enough quantities. And that's a big gap in our preparation,
and we need to solve it."
Paris-based Sanofi-Aventis runs the largest vaccine-production facility in
the U.S.

-By Henry J. Pulizzi, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9256;
[e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires
10-06-05 1827ET
Copyright (c) 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.