Chinese Drug Companies To Produce H1N1 Vaccine

China has reported more than 100 cases of Influenza A (H1N1) so far, of which 90 percent are imported cases and 10 percent domestic cases, said Chinese Minister of Health Chen Zhu, in a telephone conversation with Dr Margaret Chan, the Director-General of World Health Organisation (WHO), late Tuesday.

However, it was reported by the ministry's website that Chen said the epidemic was within control, as the health authority was able to trace and identify the source of infection.

To date, mainland China had 101 confirmed A (H1N1) patients and 50 of them had already been discharged from hospital. There had been no reports of death from the flu.

Chen thanked WHO's support for making the A (H1N1) virus strain available to China's disease control centre and vaccine manufacturers, that enabled China to produce vaccine to tackle a second wave of A (H1N1) attack.

Sinovac Biotech Company, a vaccine-focused biotech company in China, had started manufacturing A (H1N1) vaccine for human use since Monday, after it received the flu strain samples from WHO, reported the Beijing News Tuesday.

China has a total of 11 drug companies that can produce seasonal flu vaccines.

China's State Food and Drug Administration had announced it would organize and coordinate the 11 drug companies in manufacturing the vaccines.

"We expect the first batch of the vaccines to be ready in late July ", said Yin Hongzhang, head of the biology production department, State Food and Drug Administration.

The Ministry of Health would decide on the inoculation plan.

China's annual vaccine production capacity is expected to reach 360 million doses if all the 11 domestic drug companies were approved for batch production of the vaccines, said Yin.