Drug maker Astra Zeneca announced that it is voluntarily recalling some of its H1N1 swine flu vaccine due to the fact that it is not as potent as it should be, according the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Astra Zeneca’s MedImmune unit is recommending that all swine flu vaccine lots marked with an expiration date between January 19 and January 26, 2010 not be used.

This swine flu vaccine recall involves approximately 4.7 million doses of MedImmune’s nasal spray swine flu vaccine, and all but 3000 of these doses have already left warehouses.

According to Norman Baylor, director of the office of vaccines research and review at the FDA, the remainder of the swine flu vaccine doses were given out during the months of October and November when the vaccine was still at full strength. According to the FDA, people who received this nasal spray swine flu vaccine do not need to get another dose.

Astra Zeneca is now the second drug company to issue a swine flu vaccine recall, following Sanofi Aventis’ December 15, 2009 recall of 800,000 doses of their pediatric swine flu vaccine. MedImmune stresses that the recall is not due to safety issues. The recall is simply a notification to health care providers who may still have doses of the recalled vaccine in their office refrigerators that these lots of swine flu vaccine may no longer be effective.

Source:

U.S. Food and Drug Administration website.