India could have its very own indigenous vaccine against H1N1 influenza
by September.

Among three India companies — Serum Institute, Bharat Biotech and Panacea — working towards producing this India-specific vaccine, two have assured the health ministry that the vaccine would be ready by September-end. This was confirmed by director general of health services
(DGHS) Dr R K Srivastava.

He told TOI, “Two of these companies have told us that they will be able to provide the vaccine by September while the third one hasn’t given any time frame yet.” He added, “Once we are near to having the vaccine, we will decide who will get it first, how many vaccine doses we will require and what the regimens will be.”

The Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology in Pune
isolated the deadly H1N1 virus from a sample of India’s first human infection in Hyderabad on May 16. However CDC Atlanta, which grew what’s called a seed stock — a strain of the virus that’s the first step toward growing a vaccine — has sent it to the three manufacturers for the vaccine.

Health ministry officials said the vaccine should be available with India before the second wave of the pandemic arrives sometime in November. Dr V M Katoch, ICMR director general, told TOI, “For a pandemic vaccine there is no time to see its long-term effects. The manufacturers will ensure that the vaccine is safe and is effective. They will look at whether the human immune system is producing antibodies against the virus or not. We should therefore have a vaccine in the next three months.”