Vietnam: Encouraging early results for human vaccine
Via VietNamNet Bridge: Positive results for Vietnam’s bird flu vaccine. Excerpt:
Vietnam is hoping to prevent bird flu in humans following good results from the first tests of made-in-Vietnam H5N1 influenza vaccine.
The vaccine, produced by the Health Ministry’s Vaccine and Bio-technology Products Company No. 1 (VABIOTECH), has been tested on a group of 30 students from the Military Medical Institute.
The students are reportedly in good health and waiting for a second shot on May 17, scheduled for 28 days after the first shot.
VABIOTECH Director Professor Nguyen Thu Van said Vietnam is among a few countries successful in producing H5N1 vaccines, currently in human testing stages and not yet to have received licences.
Vietnam has developed the vaccine using monkey kidney cells which, Van says, are more productive, cheaper and safer than a vaccine using the culture on embryonic chicken eggs as is currently being developed by other countries.
Meanwhile, Antara reports that Indonesia's state pharmaceutical company, BioFarma, is also getting into the human-vaccine business.
