Sanofi bird flu vaccine may offer wider protection

PARIS, Oct 18 (Reuters) French drug maker Sanofi-Aventis said today tests on its experimental H5N1 bird flu vaccine show it offers protection against more strains of the virus than initially thought.

''These encouraging results show the capacity of a pre-pandemic vaccine to offer broad protection by inducing the formation of antibodies capable of neutralising the most recent strains of the H5N1 virus,'' Sanofi said in a statement before a bird flu conference in Vienna.

It said the strains included those that appeared in Turkey and other eastern European countries in 2005 and 2006 and which continue to circulate in southeast Asia.

Sanofi has signed several contracts with governments in Europe and the United States in order to produce a bird flu vaccine in case of a worldwide pandemic. France will also buy 1.4 million doses of the vaccine that has already been tested.

REUTERS AB BST1822