Alert over swine flu cost UK £1.24bn

Warnings that 65,000 people in the UK could die in a worst case scenario proved far too pessimistic, and the actual death toll during the outbreak was 457.

An inquiry into the handling of the emergency concluded that the Government's response was "proportionate and effective".

But it criticised the restrictive contracts with drug companies which have left a stockpile of over 20 million unused doses of swine flu vaccines for England alone.

The review revealed that Britain spent 654m preparing for a possible flu pandemic, and 587m responding to last year's H1N1 outbreak – a total of 1.24bn.

This included 1.01bn on drugs, among them anti-virals, vaccines and antibiotics, as well as 115.4m on items like face masks and respirators.

Critics questioned why the bill for tackling the pandemic was so large, with one describing Britain's response as a "hugely expensive farce".

But Dame Deirdre Hine, a former chief medical officer for Wales defended the cost.

"I think we have got to set these figures, which seem enormous, against the potential for saving lives," she told reporters at a briefing in London.

"It is fairly clear, although we can't actually identify the number, that there probably were lives saved of very young people, young children and so on.

"These are extremely valuable lives."

After the H1N1 outbreak in April last year, the Government made plans to buy up to 132 million doses of swine flu vaccine, enough to give everyone in the UK two doses.

But the contracts it signed with drug manufacturers GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Baxter were too inflexible, the review found.

Baxter agreed to a "break clause" allowing the Government to cancel its order for some of the doses but GSK refused.

The Department of Health said it ordered 90 million vaccine doses from GSK, of which it eventually agreed to take 34.8 million. It also placed an order for 36 million doses with Baxter, 9.2 million of which were purchased before the contract was cancelled.

About 4.88 million doses of the vaccine were given to people in England in priority groups such as pregnant women and sufferers of asthma, diabetes and heart disease.

The Department of Health said it still held just over 20 million doses of swine flu vaccine for England, with shelf lives that run out by October 2011.

Dame Deirdre's review team said commercial confidentiality prevented them from revealing how much money would have been saved if the contracts had included break clauses.

But their report said: "Break clauses would allow the UK to retain the option to cancel further deliveries of vaccine at a particular point if it emerged that more vaccine was no longer needed.

"The lack of such a clause in the advance purchase agreements for both contracts consequently exposed the Exchequer to some risk."

She stressed the need for flexibility in responding to future outbreaks, saying: "The only predictable thing about the flu virus is its unpredictability."

But Mark Wallace, of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "The swine flu response has proved to be a hugely expensive farce.

"Serious questions must be asked about why so much was spent on combating a threat that turned out not to be very serious."

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: "The UK response was the result of careful preparation, but it is vital that we learn lessons."