EU states abandon proposal for stockpile of flu vaccines

European Union health ministers have failed to come to an agreement on the constitution of a stock of antiviral treatments in preparation for a possible flu pandemic, the European Commission said in a statement on Friday.

The European commissioner for health, Markos Kyprianou said that EU Health Ministers had failed to agree to proceed with the creation of a European strategic stockpile of antivirals against influenza.

The possibility of creating a stockpile had been discussed on the initiative of France which had asked that such a stockpile be established. After months of discussion with health experts from the Member States on this issue, the Commission put forward a concept paper which set out the basic purpose and principles of the stockpile.

However, the lack of agreement on the part of the health ministers' meeting on Friday at the Council in Luxembourg, appears to have set a seal on the fate of this proposal.

The aim was to have a supplementary source of antivirals at European level, in addition to the national stockpiles composed by each Member State, Kyprianou explained. He said: "The responsibility now lies fully with national authorities to ensure that there are sufficient resources, at the very least for the most vulnerable, in the case of a pandemic."

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has a stockpile of three million oseltamivir treatments from a donation from Roche.