February 1st, 2010 by MWilhelm

(MYFOX NATIONAL) – The widely publicized swine flu pandemic of the past few years may have been largely over-hyped, according to recent reports.

While the swine flu scare may have cost panicked citizens lots of time, money and quality of life, the anxiety made some people very wealthy. For many who believed the hype, stockpiles of unused pharmaceuticals now translate to a big waste of money — particularly undesirable in this down economy.

“The panic leading up to the anticipated pandemic was a multibillion-dollar windfall for big drug companies like GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Novartis AG, and Sanofi-Aventis SA,”Portfolio.com reports. “But some countries are now negotiating with the companies to cancel part of their orders.”

A Jan. 26 article from Time magazine speculates on the issue and asks not only who raised the alarm, but why.

“By the summer of 2009, shortly after the H1N1 flu pandemic had first emerged, there was a waiting list for the first several million doses of the forthcoming new flu vaccine. At the head of the line, naturally, were the world’s richest nations,” reads the Time article.

The Time article notes that admonitions against rich nations’ greed from World Health Organization head Margaret Chan may have prompted a ramp up of production and buying.

A Wall Street Journal article from April 2009 noted that an H1N1 scare not only causes people to stay home from work out of fear, but also damages tourism, while strengthening healthcare and drug company stock portfolios.

“Flu concerns were helping pharmaceutical and health-care stocks,” the WSJ article said.