France’s Sanofi Pasteur Adopts “High State Of Readiness” To Produce Global Vaccine Defense Arsenal If H1N1 Evolves Into Pandemic: An Interview With PharmAsia News

Immediately after the Director-General of the World Health Organization raised the pandemic alert level from phase 4 to phase 5, just one step below notification of a global health threat, an influenza expert at Sanofi Pasteur outlined the French-based vaccine maker's response: moving into a "high state of readiness" to help create a worldwide vaccine defense to the speedening spread of H1N1. Sanofi Pasteur is a global power in terms of vaccine production, turning out 1.6 billion vaccine doses in 2008, and specialist Albert Garcia at Pasteur's headquarters in Lyon, France provided an overview on how the outfit's operations in the Americas, Europe and Asia could be mobilized in a worldwide fight against H1N1.