Companies reap the swine flu windfall

Healthcare companies are reaping the benefits of a global swine flu pandemic, brightening what might otherwise have been a dismal third quarter and bringing new focus on the market for vaccines. Large European pharmaceutical companies are reporting windfall sales from flu drugs and H1N1 vaccines. Small biotechs are winning fresh attention from investors and governments looking for quick, less expensive ways of making flu vaccines to protect their populations. And diagnostic companies have been growing revenues as doctors order more flu tests. "Pretty much everyone who does something in influenza in has gained from it," said Hedwig Kresse, an infectious diseases analyst at Datamonitor in London.