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Nov. 19 — Wyeth has ended production of its pneumonia and influenza shots, increasing the country's vulnerability to vaccine shortages.

The pharmaceutical company wants to focus on new immunization technologies such as its experimental nasal spray flu vaccine. But the move means there will only be one company in the United States manufacturing a pneumonia vaccine and another one making an influenza vaccine. Over the last two flu seasons there has been a vaccine shortage.

"It's obviously a concern," Curtis Allen, spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Tuesday. "The future will depend on the ability of the remaining manufacturers to increase production to meet the shortfall."

There is no U.S. shortage of influenza vaccine this winter, with about 93 million doses already produced, Allen said. He said there was no shortage of pneumonia vaccines but couldn't provide production data.

The flu vaccine is updated each year to combat the virus strains expected to circulate. Less pneumonia vaccines are needed because they are the same each year and last for several years.

Madison-based Wyeth produced about 20 million doses of its FluShield this year, but still hasn't sold about 6 million, spokesman Doug Petkus said. Sales of its Pnu-Imune are considerably smaller, he added.

"From a business perspective, this decision made sense to us," Petkus said.

Ending production of the vaccines will allow Wyeth to reallocate resources to resolving the nine-month shortage of Prevnar, its pneumonia vaccine for young children, and winning regulatory approval for its nasal flu vaccine, FluMist, Petkus said.

The decision will affect Wyeth's 800-worker manufacturing plant in Marietta in central Pennsylvania. Some staff will lose their jobs while others will be reassigned to other jobs or plants.

Just a few years ago, four drug companies sold influenza vaccine in the U.S. Wyeth is the second to drop out.

"It's kind of disheartening," said Erin Fox, a pharmacist at the University of Utah Drug Information Center of Wyeth's decision. "When only one company makes a vaccine, if there's any problem with that company or its production line, then that means our whole country will have trouble getting that vaccine."

Wyeth said there was plenty of influenza vaccine available because other manufacturers recently increased production.

But Swiftwater, Pa.-based Aventis Pasteur Inc., now the only company still making flu vaccine in the United States, this year produced the same amount for the U.S. market as last year, about 45 million doses, said spokesman Len Lavenda.

Company president Damian Braga said he was confident Aventis Pasteur, part of French drug giant Aventis SA, could make up any shortfall next year.

British vaccine maker PowderJect also sells flu vaccine in the U.S., providing roughly one-quarter of this year's supply. It has been slowly increasing production at its Liverpool manufacturing plant so it can make more than the 27 million does manufactured this year, said spokesman Tim Anderson.

Anderson said PowderJect plans to make 8 million additional doses in 2003 but "can't expand production overnight" and expects U.S. demand for the vaccine to grow rapidly.

Meanwhile, Wyeth's pneumonia vaccine, Pnu-Imune 23, has been in short supply since February, Fox said.

The only other company selling a pneumonia vaccine here is Merck & Co. of Whitehouse Station.

Merck spokespeople did not return several calls seeking comment.

The CDC has been campaigning for more people to get both vaccines to prevent an estimated 26,000 combined deaths and tens of thousands more serious illnesses and hospitalizations from influenza and pneumonia.

CDC's National Immunization Program recommends 152 million Americans should get the flu vaccine alone each year. That covers everyone aged 50 or older; millions of people with respiratory problems, heart disease, diabetes and immune systems weakened by AIDS, cancer or organ transplants; their household contacts people, and about 7 million health care workers.

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