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P. T. Jyothi Datta

Mumbai, June 15 As companies speed up efforts to get a swine flu vaccine into the market, healthcare company Baxter International Inc expects to have its vaccine available globally by July.

It depends of the regulatory processes of different countries to make the product available in their markets, a Baxter official said, on whether the product would be available in India.

The company is in discussions with the Union Health Ministry, the company official told Business Line.

The product would have to be imported from Vienna, where its final packaging is done.

The development comes even as the number of swine flu cases in India shot up to 30 on Monday, from 20 in the week-end.

Last week, the World Health Organisation (WHO) raised the alert level on swine flu to signal a pandemic and companies such as GlaxoSmithKline said that efforts were on to bring out a vaccine at the earliest.

Novartis too had said that it would have its swine flu vaccine ahead of time. Globally, about

29,699 laboratory cases of swine flu have been confirmed, and 145 deaths.

Baxter said on Monday that it had completed testing and evaluation of the A/H1N1 influenza virus and was ready for commercial production of the A/H1N1 vaccine using its Vero cell culture technology.

The company had received an A/H1N1 strain from the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention [a World Health Organisation (WHO) collaborating centre] in early May and is working to deliver a pandemic vaccine for use as early as July, the note added.

Baxter is in India since 1997, and in 2002 it bought Wockhardt’s intravenous (IV) fluid business for Rs 195 crore.

With about 800 employees in India, Baxter operates in the IV and parenteral, renal therapy and vaccine segments, the Baxter official said.

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