Even as questions are raised about the efficacy of the H1N1 vaccine, India has given leading French pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur permission to start trials from Wednesday. While the trials will take about three weeks, the single dose vaccine
will be available from the second week of February.

"The vaccines which we will have in India are safe and effective. Those having adverse effects are adjuvant, while all our vaccines are non-adjuvant," Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) Dr Surinder Singh told The Indian Express. The Sanofi Pasteur vaccine trials will be conducted on over 100 subjects in Chandigarh, Pune and Delhi.

Meanwhile, the domestically developed H1N1 vaccine will be available in the second half of April for about Rs 80 per dose, said the DCGI. "There are about 145 types of Influenza. While there are influenza vaccines available abroad, in India we do not have any. This will be the domestic vaccine for influenza," said Union Health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad.

As of now four Indian companies have got permission to conduct clinical trials for developing H1N1 vaccine with Zydus Cadila already starting human trials in January. While the Serum Institute has got approval for an intra-nasal vaccine earlier this month, Panacea and Bharat Biotech are yet to begin trials.