HENRY SCHEIN PRE-BOOKING INFLUENZA VACCINE ORDERS

Healthcare products provider Henry Schein has begun accepting pre-booking orders for the 2007 seasonal influenza vaccine, the company announced.

The company said it expected to distribute approximately 20 million doses of influenza vaccine this year. The doses will come from GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis and sanofi-aventis, Henry Schein said in a press release.

Henry Schein expects to be the only company to accept pre-booking orders from the three manufacturers of the injectable flu vaccine, according to CEO Stanley Bergman. The pre-booking orders will help the company prepare to meet full demand for the vaccine doses, Henry Schein said.

The orders are nonbinding, and the company will confirm all orders with customers before shipment, Henry Schein added. Bergman said he expected most of the vaccine sales to be to office-based physician customers, as they have been in previous years.

Bergman added that he expects Henry Schein to sell more doses of influenza vaccine than any other distributor.

In December, the company decreased its influenza vaccine distribution estimates for 2006 from 13.5 million doses to approximately 9 million doses.