Here’s a quick tour of drug and vaccine news from around the globe:

Sanofi-Aventis is recalling 800,000 doses of swine flu vaccine sold in the U.S. for use in infants and toddlers. The vaccine is safe, but it appears to have to have fallen “slightly below” the specified potency, the CDC said. The recalled lots are still strong enough to reduce the risk of catching the disease, according to the agency. Officials have recommended all along that children under 10 receive two shots, at least a month apart. For more information, see this recall Q&A from the CDC.

Pfizer will sell the diabetes drug Actos in China through a partnership with Japanese pharma outfit Takeda, which makes the drug. China is a growing market that global drug makers see as key to long-term growth. What’s more, as the country grows wealthier, its rate of diabetes is likely to rise. And a Takeda spokesman told Bloomberg that Pfizer has about 3,000 sales reps in China, compared with 170 for Takeda’s China business (which itself is a joint venture with a Chinese company).

A drug-purchasing consortium will create a “patent pool” in an effort to make more AIDS drugs available to patients in sub-Saharan Africa. The basic idea: In exchange for royalty payments, drug makers agree to let generic companies sell patented drugs in selected poor countries. It’s being pushed by Unitaid, a drug-purchasing consortium that said it plans to contribute as much as $4 million to the pool over the next year.

Many patients have become resistant to the AIDS drugs that are currently widely available in Africa, and backers of the patent pool believe it could be a way to make newer drugs available, Forbes reported recently. Gilead, J&J and Merck are actively involved in negotiations over the patent pool, Forbes said. GlaxoSmithKline’s CEO has said the company’s own price cuts and initiatives might be a more effective alternative to going through the pool, the Guardian reports.

Image: Wikimedia Commons

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