[link to www.bloomberg.com]

May 19 (Bloomberg) -- The World Health Organization urged Sanofi-Aventis SA, GlaxoSmithKline Plc and other drugmakers to start preparations for a swine flu vaccine and be ready to mass- produce a shot as early as mid-July.

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan endorsed an expert panel’s recommendations that drugmakers should develop batches for testing and get documents ready for regulators to speed the approval process. They shouldn’t stop making seasonal flu shots, the agency said today.

“Those are recommendations coming from SAGE to me and I accepted their recommendations,” Chan said today at a press conference in Geneva, referring to the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts.