Switzerland Suspends Use of Glaxo's Rotarix Vaccine

Switzerland on Tuesday asked physicians to temporarily suspend use of GlaxoSmithKline's Rotarix vaccine because of its contamination with a pig virus, Reuters reported.

Early on Monday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a drug safety communication to alert healthcare professionals and patients that rotarix vaccine was tainted with DNA from porcine circovirus type 1 or PCV-1.

The FDA said it was notified of this contamination by the drug manufacturer Glaxo after an academic research team found the virus in the vaccine. 

The U.S. Drug regulator maintained that the viral contamination will not cause any problem in those who have received the vaccine because there is no known illness associated with the pig virus.

Swissmedic, the Swiss licensing and supervisory authority, issued the request got informed of the drug contamination.

Rotavirus can cause diarrhea in young children. In the United States, the virus kills dozens of children and causes about 50,000 to 70,000 hospitalizations, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Another rotavirus vaccine called RotaTeq, which is made by Merck,  does not contain the pig virus.

By David Liu