Bharat Biotech to build inventory of swine flu vaccine

HYDERABAD: City-based Bharat Biotech is planning to build an inventory to produce swine flu vaccine in bulk, a top company official said today.

"It normally takes around three months to manufacture a vaccine which has a one-year shelf life. To deal with outbreaks and have a swift turnaround time, Bharat Biotech plans to build an inventory of bulk vaccine, so that going forward the response time is reduced to a large extent," Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Biotech Krishna Ella said here.

Ella said the company had to destroy its swine flu vaccine stocks because of very poor demand as these vaccines have a short shelf life.

"We also hope the Government will reach out to companies like ours by procuring vaccines before such seasonal outbreak occurs. The swine flu outbreak this time is worse than what we had five years ago with an estimated 12,000 plus cases reported in recent months.

Bharat Biotech's HNVAC is the only flu vaccine to be manufactured in cell culture in the developing world under a highly sterile and controlled manufacturing process, instead of eggs which has remarkable effectiveness to control H1N1," Ella said.

The company has started collecting samples and was in process of sequencing the genomes, he added.

"We are now pursuing the Vaccine Adjuvant programme which will enhance the vaccine immune capability manifold. It is an ambitious programme and we hope to unveil details in the course of time," the MD said.