The Netherlands is to try to sell 19 million doses of swine flu vaccine which are now surplus to requirements because the epidemic is almost over, the Volkskrant reports on Wednesday.

But a spokesman for the health ministry declined to say which countries have been approached and what price the government wants for the vaccines, the paper says.
Other European countries, such as Germany, Britain and Belgium are negotiating with drugs manufacturers to have their orders reduced. Germany, for example, has negotiated a 30% discount with GlaxoSmithKline on its order of 50 million doses, according to a Bloomberg report.
GlaxoSmithKline is joint producer of the Netherlands’ 34 million vaccines.
Two doses
The health ministry ordered enough to provide two doses for every man, woman and child in the country because it orginally planned to vaccinate the entire population. In the end, only the elderly, young children, health workers and people with other health problems were given the double dose as the epidemic waned.
By January 8, 54 people in the Netherlands had died of swine flu, or variant H1N1, and 2178 people had been taken to hospital. The government had been expecting up to 10,000 deaths from the virus.
Drugs manufacturers
Earlier this week, Wolfgang Wodarg, health director at the Council of Europe, accused the makers of flu drugs and vaccines of influencing the World Health Organisation’s decision to declare swine flu pandemic.
This led to the pharmaceutical firms ensuring ‘enormous gains’, with millions being vaccinated against a relatively mild disease, he said.
In the Netherlands, it emerged last year that the country’s chief virologist Ab Osterhaus, who advised the government to buy a double dose of the vaccine, has close links to drugs firms. He denied any conflict of interest.