A Maryland-based unit of AstraZeneca will share in an $811 million U.S. government order of components and tests of a swine-flu vaccine for stockpiles to protect health-care workers along with children and other vulnerable people.
 
The orders were placed with GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Novartis AG, CSL Ltd., MedImmune Inc. - which AstraZeneca bought in 2007 -- and Sanofi Pasteur, said Robin Robinson, director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, part of the Health and Human Services Department. AstraZeneca's U.S. headquarters is in Fairfax.
 
The order for components that can be made into a vaccine, if necessary, was placed in anticipation of the World Health Organization's distributing seed lots of the virus to manufacturers by the end of this month, Robinson said. Enough vaccine may be produced to protect 20 million people, said Bruce Gellin, director of the national vaccine program.
 
"The order we're placing ... starts the pipeline to fill our vaccine stockpile," U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said. Forty-two countries have confirmed 11,168 cases, including 86 deaths, according to WHO's latest tally. Almost four of every five cases were in Mexico and the U.S., where the new virus strain, a variety of H1N1, was discovered last month.
 
The decision whether to formulate a vaccine from the parts will be made during the summer as health authorities watch the progress of H1N1, Robinson said.
 
Sebelius said the U.S. needed to take steps to have a vaccine ready even though questions remain, including whether the virus seed strains will grow well enough to make an effective medicine. Other uncertainties include how much vaccine will be needed, how big a dose people should receive and who would get it.
 
"We can't wait for answers to these questions," Sebelius said. "We continue to stay one step ahead of the virus."
 
The U.K., France, Belgium and Finland said May 15 they had agreed to buy 158 million shots of the vaccine from London-based Glaxo and Baxter International Inc. of Deerfield, III.
 
Robinson said HHS is asking for the H1N1 vaccine from the five companies with contracts to produce a vaccine needed in a flu pandemic.
 
Novartis, of Basel, Switzerland, received a $288.8 million order, London-based Glaxo got $181.1 million and Sanofi Pasteur, a unit of the French drug maker Sanofi-aventis SA, was awarded $190.6 million, said Bill Hall, a department spokesman. The orders are part of the companies' vaccine contracts, he said.
 
HHS asked Novartis and Glaxo to produce antigen, which is the active ingredient in a vaccine that triggers the body to fight an invading virus, Hall said. The two companies also were asked to make adjuvant, an immune-system booster. Adding adjuvant to a vaccine reduces the amount of antigen needed and extends the supply, he said.
 
Sanofi Pasteur has been asked to make antigen only.
 
An additional $150 million order was placed with MedImmune Inc. and CSL Ltd. of Australia. That order is to develop test lots of vaccine for clinical studies to determine the required dose and antigen levels. The order also will cover potency testing for the vaccine.
 
More than 60 percent of the U.S. swine flu cases have been among those ages 5 to 25, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based in Atlanta. The influenza has spread among school children, triggering the current closures of about 60 schools affecting 42,000 students, the CDC said.