BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Authorities are inquiring a possible association between the deaths of 14 kids and an experimental vaccine administered to them in a clinical trial, conducted by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
They are investigating whether the deaths are linked to the Synflorix vaccine, said an agency official. The drug, made to fight against pneumonia, ear infections and several other pneumococcal diseases by the London-based GSK, the world’s second-largest drug maker.
A U.S. spokeswoman for Glaxo, Sarah Alspach, said “the company is not attributing the deaths to the experimental vaccine, which is being tested in three Latin American countries and in other countries around the world.”
“We rely on their safety review,” Alspach said. “Safety is our primary concern, always, with the development of any new treatment.”
More than 19,000 babies have taken at least one shot of Synflorix, which Glaxo decided to test on 24,000 infants, she said.
