Serum Institute to make trivalent flu vaccine at idle H1N1 facility

Confronted with the spectre of a new vaccine-making facility sitting idle, Pune-based Serum Institute of India says it may make the trivalent flu vaccine for export here instead of one for swine flu.

The current situation has arisen because the vaccine maker has stopped making the H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine at the facility set up for the purpose after the Indian government said it would procure only the injectible vaccine that was tailor-made for it, and not the nasal version.

In early July, Serum Institute had moved the Delhi High Court alleging that the Indian government reneged on its authorised marketing commitment to buy the vaccine. A few million doses of the vaccine have had to be thrown away as they are past the use-by date, Adar Poonawala, Executive Director, Serum Institute, said.

“We have invested Rs 40 crore in plant and machinery, and now the plant is lying idle. We will instead make the trivalent flu vaccine here, which is seasonal, and export it,” he said, adding that the Institute was weighing a few proposals. Serum Institute will be making this for the first time. 

Meanwhile, the Serum Institute has made an additional provision of half million doses of the nasal H1N1 vaccine and stockpiled it in case of a swine flu outbreak. Poonwala said he was disappointed with the government’s insistence on the injectible vaccine as the nasal one was equally safe and easy to administer.   

It may be recalled that at the height of the swine flu epidemic in 2009, the government had paid Rs 10 crore to each of three pharmaceutical companies to make the vaccine indigenously. Now Serum Institute may be faced with the prospect of returning the amount along with the interest and needs to plan alternatives at the facility that will generate income.

alka.k@thehindu.co.in

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