Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking+News/Tech+and+Science/Story/STIStory_369906.html
April 28, 2009
SWINE FLU OUTBREAK
4 labs working on 'seed virus'
GENEVA - FOUR laboratories are at 'various stages' of working on a seed virus that is a precursor in a future vaccine against swine flu, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.
'There are currently four of our reference laboratories who are working with seed virus, they are at various stages of producing seed virus needed to make the vaccines,' said WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl.
He said however that the laboratories - in Britain, Canada and the United States - have not been asked to begin production in an extensive manner.
'The signal would not be given before we go into phase five (alert), and might be given at the time we go into phase five,' said Mr Hartl, referring to the WHO's six-level alert system.
The current alert level stands at four and Mr Hartl said a signal for production would be a 'very big decision.' This is because pharmaceutical groups would have to use current production capacities available to make the new vaccine and therefore they would have to suspend their production of regular seasonal vaccine, he explained.
WHO on Monday recommended that the UN agency 'take steps to facilitate the development' of a vaccine against the swine flu virus found in the latest outbreak that has likely caused more than 150 deaths in Mexico and has spread worldwide.
But the panel stopped short of recommending a complete shift in global vaccine production capacity, warning that it would be 'prudent' to continue regular seasonal vaccine production as well.
A spokesman in Paris for Sanofi Pasteur, a subsidiary of the French pharmaceutical maker Sanofi-Aventis, had said that the time needed to make a flu vaccine is about four months.
Scaling up production of a vaccine is another hurdle. The main approach is to grow the virus samples in time-honoured fashion in embryo chicken eggs, which is slow and clumsy.
Production capacity of flu vaccines has tripled since 2007 in response to the SARS and H5N1 scares, according to a WHO-funded study published in February. -- AFP
April 28, 2009
SWINE FLU OUTBREAK
4 labs working on 'seed virus'
GENEVA - FOUR laboratories are at 'various stages' of working on a seed virus that is a precursor in a future vaccine against swine flu, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.
'There are currently four of our reference laboratories who are working with seed virus, they are at various stages of producing seed virus needed to make the vaccines,' said WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl.
He said however that the laboratories - in Britain, Canada and the United States - have not been asked to begin production in an extensive manner.
'The signal would not be given before we go into phase five (alert), and might be given at the time we go into phase five,' said Mr Hartl, referring to the WHO's six-level alert system.
The current alert level stands at four and Mr Hartl said a signal for production would be a 'very big decision.' This is because pharmaceutical groups would have to use current production capacities available to make the new vaccine and therefore they would have to suspend their production of regular seasonal vaccine, he explained.
WHO on Monday recommended that the UN agency 'take steps to facilitate the development' of a vaccine against the swine flu virus found in the latest outbreak that has likely caused more than 150 deaths in Mexico and has spread worldwide.
But the panel stopped short of recommending a complete shift in global vaccine production capacity, warning that it would be 'prudent' to continue regular seasonal vaccine production as well.
A spokesman in Paris for Sanofi Pasteur, a subsidiary of the French pharmaceutical maker Sanofi-Aventis, had said that the time needed to make a flu vaccine is about four months.
Scaling up production of a vaccine is another hurdle. The main approach is to grow the virus samples in time-honoured fashion in embryo chicken eggs, which is slow and clumsy.
Production capacity of flu vaccines has tripled since 2007 in response to the SARS and H5N1 scares, according to a WHO-funded study published in February. -- AFP