Vaccines against swine flu have already been developed in laboratories around the world, but will not be readily available until at least October and perhaps as late as December, according to one manufacturer.
Around the world pharmaceutical companies have been producing vaccine strains for at least a month. Some are in the experimental stages, while others are approaching the need for clinical trials. However they are “by no means” ready yet, according to the World Health Organisation.
First batches:
The U.K.’s Department of Health has said it has signed contracts to supply enough vaccines for the entire British population and expects the first batches to arrive in the “early autumn.”
In April, the race to produce a successful vaccine against HINI began in earnest, when, under orders from the WHO, institutes in the U.K., the U.S., Japan and Australia began work to produce a “seed strain” of the virus, which could then go on to provide for a vaccine.
In the U.K., scientists at the Health Protection Agency’s National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC) began work on a strain isolated fro a patient in the U.S Using a technique called “reverse genetics” the scientist took the genes that make the outer coating of the swine flu virus and then attached them to a harmless human virus known as PR8.
This reconstructed virus is considered safe for humans and will trigger an immune response that protects people against the swine flu strain.
By 28 May, NIBSC had completed its work. It sent the starter virus out to manufacturers, including GSK and Baxter.
The next step was to develop the virus and grow it inside chicken eggs, to produce it in vast quantities. The production involves refining it further and then, once the experimental phase is finished, conducting clinical trials of the vaccine.
It has been reported that CSL, a biopharmaceutical in Melbourne, Australia, has created an effective vaccine, but it is awaiting human trials to fix upon the correct dosage.
On 14 July, a spokesman for GSK said the company had started production of the vaccine last “final vaccine” to be available from between four and six months from then. He said that the clinical trials would happen “before autumn.”
Clinical trials:
Commenting on when vaccines would be ready for use, Marine-Paule Kieny, director of the Initiative for Vaccine Research, at the World Health Organisation, in Geneva, Switzerland, said: “They are produced but they are by no means ready to be licensed yet.”
