Narcolepsy traced to specific vaccine batches/ The Local

Very interesting:  the Narcolepsy Association discovered that specific lots were involved, after the Swedish Medical Products Agency denied it.  Bad lots may mean that the regulators were not doing their job.  If this devastating narcolepsy epidemic was caused by bad lots, liability for the injuries might land on the manufacturer, in this case GSK.  From Sweden's The Local:

A new Swedish study shows that all Swedes who developed narcolepsy from the swine flu vaccine Pandemrix received the vaccine from 12 of the 35 batches, despite the Swedish Medical Products Agency’s (Läkemedelsverket) previous claim that no such connection exists.

“We will have to think again,” said Maria Szirmai of the Swedish Medical Products Agency to newspaper Göteborgsposten (GP).

Over 220 Swedes, most of them children, developed narcolepsy as a side effect from the Swine flu vaccine Pandemrix, according to the reports filed with insurance company Läkemedelsförsäkringen.

All these had received the vaccine from some 12 of the 35 batches of vaccine delivered to Sweden.

From 23 of the 35 shipments there is no recorded case of anyone developing the condition, according to the study, which was carried out by the Swedish Narcolepsy Association (Narkolepsiföreningen).

The association traced the vaccine through the batch number on the side of the boxes.

Their findings will now be investigated by the agency, which has previously denied any connection between different vaccine shipments and the onset of narcolepsy.

In some parts of Sweden, namely in counties Skåne, Västra Götaland, Dalarna and Uppland, there are more children affected by narcolepsy than anywhere else in the country, which has so far flummoxed researchers.

Over half a million Swedes were vaccinated against swine flu with Pandemrix between autumn 2009 and spring 2010.