The developed base material or seed strain for the vaccine specific to Influenza A (H1N1) will be given to drug manufacturers and viral vaccine producers by mid-May or late-May, according to Marie-Paule Kieny, World Health Organization (WHO) director of the initiative for vaccine research.
The first doses of the vaccine are expected to come out by September, at the earliest. After which, mass production will be underway. These drug companies are known to produce about 400 million doses of seasonal influenza vaccine each year. According to the international health agency, 1 to 2 billion doses of the H1N1 vaccine will be made available for next year.
There are different companies that have signified their interest to manufacture the vaccine, four of them are specifically designed to quickly incorporate the new pandemic strain. However, all experts say that production would take four to six months before the first dose of vaccine will be available.
“We have summoned all vaccine producers, including independent producers from Brazil, China, Hungary. The industry is highly participative and is helping the WHO a lot,” said Kieny. As regards to the cost of vaccine production, the WHO representative said that the international community is discussing how to facilitate the access of the poorest countries to the vaccine. “We have donors willing to finance it. We hope that the cost is not very high,” added Kieny. Several producers have contracts with some governments that have already set aside a certain amount for vaccines during a pandemic.
Via Reuters AlertNet
