Fifth Swine Flu Vaccine recommendation by European regulator.

LONDON — The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) on Friday recommended a swine flu pandemic vaccine produced by French pharmaceutical group Sanofi-Aventis for European use.
"The European Medicines Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use has recommended the granting of a conditional marketing authorisation for Humenza from Sanofi Pasteur," the EMEA said in a brief statement.

"This is the fifth pandemic vaccine recommended for use by the committee, and the second to be assessed using an emergency procedure which fast-tracks the evaluation of new vaccines developed during a pandemic influenza."

The other four swine flu vaccines are
Arepanrix and Pandemrix, both produced by British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline,
Focetria from Swiss peer Novartis,
and Celvapan which is made by US firm Baxter.
 
Celvapan, Focetria and Pandemrix have all won approval for use from the European Commission. However, Arepanrix has not yet been cleared for European usage.

The World Health Organisation's emergency panel of swine flu experts will meet later this month to formally determine whether the pandemic has passed its peak.

The A(H1N1) flu pandemic was generally tailing off in most parts of the world and appeared to be entering a transitional period, according to the UN health agency.