Oct. 10  -- CVS Caremark Corp. and Walgreen Co., the two largest U.S. drugstore chains, are experiencing spot shortages of seasonal-flu vaccines because of increased demand.

CVS MinuteClinics in Austin, Texas, and New York ran out of the seasonal-flu vaccine within the past week before restocking, according to calls to 13 stores by Bloomberg News. Calls to eight Walgreen stores in Manhattan on Oct. 5 determined none had it at the time. There are also shortages in the South and Southeast, said James Cohn, a Walgreen spokesman.

Demand for seasonal-flu vaccinations has soared because of public awareness of the H1N1 virus, known as swine flu, Cohn said. Walgreen administered twice as many doses in September as in the entire 2008 flu season, he said. CVS's clinics have vaccinated a "significantly higher number of people" than last year, said Michael DeAngelis, a spokesman.

"We are experiencing very high demand for seasonal-flu shots and we are working closely with multiple suppliers to meet this demand on a day-to-day basis," DeAngelis said in an e-mail yesterday. "When we experience isolated shortages of vaccine supply, we do all we can to replenish these locations."

Seasonal-flu vaccines don't prevent swine flu, according to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The first doses of swine flu vaccine in the U.S. were given to health-care workers and children this week.

Walgreen administered 2.5 million seasonal-flu vaccine doses last month, more than twice the 1.2 million it gave out from Oct. 1, 2008, through Feb. 28, Cohn said.

Working With Suppliers

"We are encouraging consumers to get vaccinated early," Cohn said by telephone.

CVS, based in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, rose 29 cents to $36.48 yesterday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Deerfield, Illinois-based Walgreen, the second-biggest drugstore chain, fell 19 cents to $39.45. Rite Aid Corp., the third- biggest, declined 4 cents to $1.56.

CVS shares have gained 27 percent this year, compared with a gain of 60 percent for Walgreen and a more than fivefold jump for Camp Hill, Pennsylvania-based Rite Aid.

While Rite Aid hasn't had any seasonal-flu vaccine shortages, it also hasn't yet received all its ordered doses, Cheryl Slavinsky, a company spokeswoman, said by telephone.

Shortages at doctors' offices and health clinics have also been reported in Arizona, Illinois, Minnesota, North and South Dakota and Vermont, according to the Web sites of local newspapers including the Addison County Independent in Vermont, the Grand Forks Herald of North Dakota and the Star Tribune in Minneapolis.

A Few Weeks Behind

Paris-based Sanofi-Aventis SA, a supplier of seasonal-flu vaccines in the U.S., said delays are causing shortages in some areas. Sanofi is "a few weeks" behind schedule, and has distributed more than 30 million of its allocated 50.5 million doses to the U.S., spokeswoman Donna Cary said.

"Everyone wants their vaccine now," Cary said by telephone. "Whether everybody is trying to get the vaccine early this year or if there's truly an increase in demand has yet to be determined.

"Every single customer that we have has gotten at least their initial shipment from us."

Five vaccine suppliers -- Sanofi, London-based AstraZeneca Plc and GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Basel, Switzerland-based Novartis AG and CSL Ltd. of Australia -- are making 114 million seasonal- flu doses and 251 million swine flu doses for the U.S., according to the Health and Human Services Department.

More Vaccine Available

"The good news is that we have more seasonal-flu vaccine out than we typically would this time of year," Anne Schuchat, head of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC, said on a conference call yesterday. "The bad news is that more people want it than can seem to be able to get it."

More doses are being shipped, and over the next few weeks, there will be enough for everyone who wants to get vaccinated, she said.

"We wish we had more vaccine for everybody who's looking for it and for providers who are trying to get it," said Schuchat.

Some manufacturers have shifted their efforts to focus on making the swine flu vaccine available, Schuchat said. Almost all of the flu circulating in the U.S. is the pandemic H1N1 strain, the CDC reported on its Web site.

Swine flu continued to sweep across the country last week, with widespread illness reported in 37 states, the CDC reported. About 4,500 people have died of swine flu since the virus emerged in April, the World Health Organization said yesterday.

The first H1N1 vaccinations this week were administered as part of the world's biggest influenza prevention program. About 6.8 million doses were available as of Oct. 8, the CDC said.