India to develop vaccine to combat H1N1

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the dreadful swine flu is spreading at an alarming rate and can affect two billion people globally if the current outbreak turns into a pandemic.

Meeting of medical experts next week
A crucial meeting between the country's best known scientists is to be held on Tuesday next week. These experts will discuss the capabilities of all prospective vaccine manufacturers to undertake the ambitious project.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) director general, Dr V M Katoch, said, "It is a high level exploratory meeting between experts from NICD, NIV, ICMR and several vaccine manufacturers to see whether India can embark on creating a vaccine against H1N1."

Indications are that the Pune-based Serum Institute of India is likely to join hands with Ocimum Biosolutions and Dr. Suresh Mittal, a researcher in Purdue University, to initiate steps that promote the development of such a vaccine.

Executive director of Serum, Suresh Jadhav, said that Serum is the only Indian institute amongst the 12-13 companies selected by WHO from all over the world to develop this vaccine. He said, “Serum was already working with WHO to develop a vaccine for avian flu and that is the reason we got this new project.”

The vaccine development plan
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. agency that aims to protect public health and safety by providing information to enhance health decisions, has already isolated a sample of the H1N1 virus.

The CDC has also developed a seed stock; the first and foremost step in developing a vaccine.

Talking of the plan to develop the vaccine, Marie Paule Kieny, WHO's director of the Initiative for Vaccine Research, said, “If we decide to make a vaccine, we will ask CDC to share the seed with ICMR."

An optimistic Suresh Jadhav stated, “We will be getting the samples in another three weeks and if the testing goes as per plan, we can have the vaccine by 4-5 months.”