WHO turns to Pune for flu vaccine rollout

India could soon be part of a global hunt to create the world’s first pandemic vaccine against the deadly H1N1 influenza virus. The World Health Organisation is planning to contact Pune-based vaccine makers Serum Institute of India, to see whether it would have the capacity to produce in mass scale a vaccine against H1N1, once the technology is ready. WHO’s director of the Initiative for Vaccine Research Marie-Paule Kieny said not a single company in India makes influenza vaccines. “However, over the past two years, we have been funding the SII along with similar vaccine manufactures in four countries to help them acquire technology to start producing influenza vaccines.” “We will discuss with SII whether they are ready for bulk production of a vaccine against H1N1. This would be of great interest to India and the WHO, as some manufacturers in India have the capacity to produce large volumes of vaccines,” Dr Kieny said. Dr Kieny said drug makers globally would shift to producing pandemic flu vaccines within a few weeks to protect against the new H1N1 strain. According to her, WHO is discussing with drug companies whether and when to stop making seasonal flu vaccine production and shift to making one for the new H1N1 strain. Tests have shown the seasonal influenza vaccine would have little effect against those infected with H1N1 flu, making production of a new vaccine more important.