AMSTERDAM, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Dutch health authorities have suspended a batch of Pfizer's vaccine Prevenar, or Prevnar, after three infants died within two weeks of getting the vaccine, Dutch health institute RIVM said on Thursday.

'On average about 5 to 10 deaths are reported annually after babies get vaccines. We now have three cases in a short period, that is unusual and the reason for suspending the batch,' an RIVM spokeswoman said.

RIVM was investigating the cause of the infants' deaths, which was not yet known, the spokeswoman said. Other batches of Prevenar, known as Prevnar in the United States, will continue to be used the spokeswoman said.

A spokesman for the European Medicines Agency in London said the suspension was a 'precautionary measure' and added its officials were working with the Dutch authorities to try and ascertain if there were any particular safety issues with the vaccine batch.

The vaccine is one of the most widely used in the world and generated sales for U.S. drugmaker Wyeth of $2.7 billion in 2008.

Wyeth, which has just been acquired by U.S. rival Pfizer had asked for the suspension of batch D66977 of Prevenar, which helps protect infants from invasive pneumococcal disease, RIVM said in a statement.

Officials at Pfizer in New York could not immediately be reached for comment.

(Reporting by Gilbert Kreijger, Ben Hirschler in London and Ransdell Pierson in New York; editing by Simon Jessop) Keywords: DUTCH DEATHS/PFIZER

(gilbert.kreijger@thomsonreuters.com; +31 20 5045007; Reuters Messaging: gilbert.kreijger.reuters.com@reuters.net)

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