Japan has 99 million unneeded shots of imported new-flu vaccine

TOKYO, March 13 Kyodo -
Japan has 99 million unneeded shots of imported H1N1 flu vaccines, bought for
112.6 billion yen, health ministry officials said Saturday.
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry is negotiating canceling part of the
purchases with GlaxoSmithKline plc of Britain and Novartis AG of Switzerland.
The government concluded the purchase contracts last October under the premise
that two shots would be necessary for one person, but later the number of
necessary shots was revised to one for most people.
Combining the imported vaccines with 54 million shots of domestically-made
vaccines, Japan has come to have vaccines for more than its entire population
of 127 million.
The 2.34 million shots of Novartis-made vaccines are going to expire at the end
of March, with only 136 shots given in a total of four of Japan's 47
prefectures.
There have been no orders for the GlaxoSmithKline vaccines as they sell in
units of 50 shots, which hospitals say is too many.
The ministry said some 18 million people had received domestic vaccines by the
end of January but that demand for domestic vaccines is declining sharply.
==Kyodo