Bird Flu Surge in China Spurs H7N9 Pandemic Vaccine Preparations

[link to www.bloomberg.com]


A surge in bird flu cases in China increases the pandemic potential of the H7N9 strain, according to a Beijing-based supplier of influenza vaccines to the Chinese government.

Sinovac Biotech Ltd. (SVA), the first company to win regulatory approval for a swine flu shot in 2009, is preparing to make immunizations against the new virus that’s infected dozens of people in China and killed 13. The Nasdaq-traded company will hold off producing the shots until it’s received an order from the state, said Chief Executive Officer Yin Weidong.
A Sinovac Biotech Ltd. technician checks chicken eggs under a light inside the company's laboratory in Beijing on Sep. 4, 2009. Sinovac has notified its suppliers that it may need to order additional fertilized chicken eggs to produce H7N9 vaccine. Photographer: Doug Kanter/Bloomberg

Employees of Sinovac Biotech Ltd. move trays of the company's Panflu 1 H1N1 vaccine in Beijing on Sept. 4, 2009. Sinovac has the capacity to produce about 30 million to 40 million doses of flu vaccine annually. Photographer: Doug Kanter/Bloomberg
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Flu labs around the world are developing vaccine seed strains to serve as a template for bulk immunization production, should it be required. While there is no evidence that H7N9 is spreading easily among people, it hasn’t been detected in humans before, so they have no natural immunity. That raises global public health concerns, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said last week.

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Under an agreement with China’s Food and Drug Administration, a Sinovac vaccine for pandemic flu doesn’t need to undergo clinical testing because its production methods have already been approved and the pandemic flu vaccine would represent only a change in the viral strain, he said.

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