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Beijing to start making human bird flu vaccine
Goh Eng Yeow Fri, Apr 04, 2008 The Straits Times
HONG KONG - BEIJING has given the go-ahead to a Chinese drugmaker to begin large-scale production of a human bird flu vaccine, the company said yesterday. According to Sinovac Biotech, which jointly developed the vaccine with China's Centres for Disease Control, approval was given after a second clinical trial showed the vaccine was safe and effective. 'We checked our 402 participants for antibodies, and they met international standards,' said Mr Liu Peicheng, Sinovac's publicity supervisor. China said on Wednesday that it had authorised production of the vaccine, which uses an inactivated H5N1 virus from Vietnam.

Experts have for years warned of a possible H5N1 pandemic as people have no immunity against the virus, and because of the high mortality rate associated with it.

The bird flu virus has killed 238 people globally out of 376 confirmed cases since 2003.

In Vietnam, where 52 people have died from bird flu, clinical trials for another vaccine are under way.

Dr Nguyen Tuyet Nga, the epidemiologist and virologist heading the trials, said researchers were using the highly pathogenic strain of H5N1 taken from humans in 2004 in Vietnam.

An effective vaccine can be made only four to six months after the start of a pandemic, when the culprit virus strain has been identified.

Still, experts say some form of protection is needed in the initial months of a pandemic, and drug companies are in a race to design these 'prepandemic' vaccines.

REUTERS