Norway: problems which a small and sparsely populated European country without a national vaccine production would face during a pandemic

Abstract

Since Norway at present has no national influenza vaccine production, there is some concern that during a pandemic influenza situation it would be difficult to secure even a limited quantity of appropriate influenza vaccine. It is conceivable that national emergency directives declared in the manufacturing countries would ban or severely hinder export of a life-saving commodity such as influenza vaccine. Most probably, this would be the situation for all European countries without a national influenza vaccine production. To ensure vaccine availability for the purchasing country even under a national influenza emergency situation declared in the manufacturing country such agreements must be safe against unilateral cancellation.