FLU Windfall

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

: As the world grapples with the fallout of the swine flu pandemic as well as growing concerns on how to control it, Indian pharmaceutical companies, vaccine makers and clinical research organisations are looking to tap new opportunities spawned by the latest outbreak. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has asked the Pune-based Serum Institute of India to develop a vaccine to prevent swine flu. Serum has been working with the WHO for the past two years to develop a vaccine for avian flu.

Scientists at Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and National Institute of Virology (NIV) have already characterised the virus causing the influenza. Preliminary research in the area is also underway at other vaccine makers such as Bharat Biotech, who are contemplating the development of a vaccine against swine flu.

“The latest outbreak has given a strong opportunity to Indian drug industry to display its credentials in manufacturing and testing of vaccines,” says Bharat Biotech chairman, Krishna Ella. In the face of a swine flu pandemic, there will be takers for vaccines against the infection. But this opportunity and potential has to be unlocked through direct and indirect support from the government. We require support from the Indian government through incentives, grants, purchase commitments etc, he adds.

Good news is that the government appears to be gung ho in its plans on developing a vaccine for the deadly swine flu. With the number of patients infected by the new strain of virus rapidly increasing in India—mostly from persons who have returned from the US and European countries—the government is engaged in hectic deliberations with the WHO representatives, domestic research institutes such as ICMR, NIV and the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), and pharmaceutical companies to prepare a scientific framework for manufacturing a vaccine for the dreaded disease.

India has requested the WHO to share the seed virus, which is needed before manufacturing a vaccine for the international market. Healthcare analysts inform that the Centre for Disease Control (CDC), Atlanta, will provide the strain of the H1N1 virus to help in the research work. The government will soon constitute a core team to begin the research work and decide on the requirements of the vaccine makers who would be manufacturing it.