The demand for H1N1 vaccine is quite high in India. However, wait is only for a month or half now and the indigenous swine flu vaccine- made in India- will be commercially available in the market latest by April 2010. Zydus Cadila, the Ahmadabad based pharmaceutical company and Serum India, the Pune based pharmaceutical company have completed the first phase trials of the swine flu vaccine. Zydus Cadila is conducting the phase two and phase three trials of the swine flu vaccine in four major cities of Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Jaipur and Pune. Serum India also started its clinical trials of nasal form of vaccine on 300 subjects at different locations around the country on March 8, 2010.
Zydus Cadila is prepared to manufacture about ten to twelve million doses of the swine flu vaccine in the initial phase that is expected just after the 2nd and 3rd phases of trial (that may take another six weeks to complete). Serum India, on the other hand, plans to introduce the single dose swine flu vaccine in two forms —nasal spray and as an injectable. The inhalation vaccine uses a live virus, which will be administered to three age groups ( 9-19 years, 20-48 years and 48 and above.) during the trials. According to S Jadhav, the Executive Director of Serum India, “Further trials will be carried out later to test safety of the injectable vaccine on another set of people."
Apart from the two pharmaceutical companies, Bharat Biotech and Panacea Biotech are also working on the swine flu vaccination. Additionally, the 1.5 million doses of the H1N1 vaccine is to be imported from French company Sanofi Pasteur who has already passed the safety test. The mass vaccination for swine flu will begin in the country by next week. However, the swine flu vaccine developed by indigenous pharma companies will be much cheaper with a cost of around Rs 150-200 per vaccine. The global cost of H1N1 vaccine range between 9 and 15 Dollars.
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