Sunday, March 27, 2011

Broader Flu Vaccination for Kids Could Boost AstraZeneca

Wall Street Journal, Feb. 28, 2011

Kids should get flu vaccinations from the time they’re six months old until they turn 18, an advisory panel of vaccine gurus to the Centers for Disease Control recommended yesterday.

That’s a big expansion from previous guidelines, which suggested flu shots for healthy kids only through age 5, and could mean 30 million more kids will be in line to be vaccinated.

An expansion could give a boost to AstraZeneca, which last year paid some $16 billion to acquire MedImmune, which makes a nasal flu vaccine that’s approved for children age two and over. (No more excuses about painful shots, kiddos.) The company said yesterday that it plans to make 12 million doses of the vaccine this year, the most ever.

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