By CBC News
CBC News

The B.C. government hopes to recover at least part of the $20-million cost of swine flu vaccine it has to dump because the serum is unexpectedly spoiling far in advance of its best-before date.

The B.C. government hopes to recover at least part of the $20-million cost of swine flu vaccine it has to dump because the serum is unexpectedly spoiling far in advance of its best-before date.

The province is stuck with about 2.5 million doses of the vaccine, which were supposed to be good for 18 months, but have turned out to have only a six-month shelf life.

B.C. is among several health jurisdictions across the country left with the unusable medicine, and has joined other provinces in talks with manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline about recovering some of the cost.

"We're working ... to see what we can do to find out if there is any kind of recovery," said B.C. Health Living Minister Ida Chong Wednesday.

"No one wants to see unused vaccines discarded in this way. Certainly no-one would have expected this, but it was a very novel virus."

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