Meningitis Group Urges Earlier Sale Of Approved Sanofi Pasteur Vaccine

At a press briefing held at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare Feb 8, Miki Tanaka, president of Guiding Children From Bacterial Meningitis, called for earlier sale of preventative vaccines and expressed dismay at the time taken to put Sanofi Pasteur's Hib vaccine on the market. Approved in Japan in January 2007, the vaccine is still not available. A patient and doctor advocacy group presented MHLW with a petition for Hib vaccine regular inoculations and an earlier approval of pneumococcal vaccination for children. (Click for more - Japanese language