Asian Countries Race to Produce Vaccine for H1N1 Virus

The race to mass-produce vaccines for the lethal H1N1 virus has attracted contenders from Asia’s developing countries, confirming a noticeable expansion of a field that has been dominated by flu vaccine production centres in Europe and North America.

India and Thailand are among the countries working on such vaccine doses. The demand for immunisation measures comes at a time when public health authorities are warning that Asia, like other developing regions, is in dire need of vaccines to respond to the rapid spread of the Type A (H1N1) influenza pandemic.

'This is something new for these countries producing flu vaccines. But they have produced other vaccines,' says Dr Arun Thapa, coordinator for immunisation and vaccine development for the New Delhi-based South and East Asia office of the World Health Organisation (WHO). 'India, Indonesia and Thailand responded to WHO’s request to help boost the vaccine supply.'

'All three countries have received the seed virus for vaccine production,' Dr Thapa said during a telephone interview from Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, where the region’s public health experts are meeting this week to chart a response ahead of a possible winter surge in (H1N1) flu cases. 'We expect this new vaccine to be ready in the first quarter of 2010. That is an optimistic scenario.'

The WHO, which has transferred technology and development funds to vaccine manufacturers in the three Asian countries, expects to have a 'collective capacity of about 220 million doses annually, with a surge capacity that could reach 420 million vaccine doses annually,' states a press release by the Geneva-based health body.

Those numbers for Asia will also be boosted by another vaccine production centre — China. The region’s giant is reported to have moved ahead of India, Indonesia and Thailand, following an announcement early this month that experts from the country’s State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) approved a vaccine candidate. It is expected to have vaccines for 65 million people by the end of the year.

'China is set to be the first country to mass-produce a vaccine against the A(H1N1) flu pandemic,' reported the state-owned ‘China Daily’ on its website at the beginning of September. 'Only one shot is needed for inoculation.'

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