S.E. Asia keen to produce flu vaccines-WHO chief

Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam want to produce influenza vaccines, the World Health Organization's head said on Monday, making them less dependent on United States and Europe suppliers in the event of a pandemic.

Margaret Chan, speaking in Singapore ahead of World Health Day on April 7, said that the sooner those three countries found partners with the technological expertise to produce such vaccines, the sooner they could start their own production.

"We need to find support for countries such as Indonesia and Thailand, which are interested to build their own vaccine manufacturing plants," Chan told Reuters at the sidelines of the event.

Currently, total global capacity to make vaccines is concentrated with the big drug manufacturers in Europe and the United States.

Global capacity is only about 300 million to 400 million doses a year, or far below what would be needed in the case of a pandemic.

Developing countries, such as Indonesia, are worried about their limited access to vaccines in the event of a pandemic.

Indonesia briefly stopped sharing samples of the H5N1 avian influenza virus with the WHO, citing concerns that the virus-sharing scheme did not guarantee poor countries access to influenza vaccines.

In particular, Indonesia was worried that the samples would be put to commercial use by another country or company.

Last week, Jakarta resumed sample-sharing on condition that the WHO restricted drug company access to the samples.

"The government of Indonesia should be congratulated for bringing the world's attention to the importance of access to pandemic influenza vaccine," Chan said.

"We clearly understand how important it is for developing countries who provide the virus (samples) to have access to the vaccines."

Chan, who said the next influenza pandemic would "certainly happen", also said that the WHO is looking into the feasibility of building a global stockpile of pandemic influenza vaccines.

source:www.alertnet.org