Updated June 14, 2009 12:00 AM
A man hangs a streamer about taking health precautions against the A(H1N1) virus outside De La Salle University on Taft Avenue. Jonjon Vicencio
ZURICH – Novartis AG expects a vaccine for the A(H1N1) virus, the source of the first flu pandemic for 40 years, to be available by autumn after it produced the first batch for testing ahead of schedule.
US company Baxter International Inc. said though it is in full-scale production of an A(H1N1) flu pandemic vaccine that could be ready for commercial use as early as next month.
At Malacañang, Press Secretary Cerge Remonde assured the public that funds are available for the procurement of the vaccine that is being developed, as confirmed cases have topped 100.
“I’m sure that if we will be able to buy this (vaccine) then we will buy this right away,” Remonde said in Filipino over Radyo ng Bayan.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said 19 new cases have brought the total to 111 cases, but all have shown mild symptoms. He said 38 have already recovered.
Meanwhile, the opening of classes for colleges and universities will push through tomorrow after a week-long delay, according to the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).
“We will not postpone it any more,” CHED Chairman Dr. Emmanuel Angeles said.
“What will happen to our country if we will panic about it?” he asked. “Everybody’s ready.”
CHED expects some 2.6 million students and 500,000 faculty personnel to go back to the country’s more than 1,700 universities and colleges tomorrow.
CHED had deferred the school opening to give schools more time to set in place measures to ward off A(H1N1).
Full-scale production
The Baxter and Novartis vaccines were both developed using cell-based technology that could allow for much more rapid production and distribution than traditional vaccines produced using chicken eggs.
The Novartis vaccine will enter clinical trials next month, the Swiss drugmaker said on Friday, a day after the World Health Organization declared a pandemic and warned governments to prepare for a long battle against the virus.
Baxter said it had completed testing and evaluation of the virus and would submit its A(H1N1) vaccine for approval upon completion of initial manufacturing runs.
European drugmakers Novartis, Sanofi-Aventis, GlaxoSmithKline and Solvay all obtained the influenza A(H1N1) seed virus in recent weeks and aim to have a vaccine ready ahead of the northern hemisphere flu season.
The WHO has estimated vaccine makers could produce up to 4.9 billion pandemic flu shots a year in a best-case scenario, leaving some of the world’s 6.5 billion population unprotected, particularly if more than one injection was needed to gain immunity.
Novartis said first results with the A(H1N1) wild type strain showed it was quicker to make the vaccine through cell-based rather than through egg-based production, and it had completed its first batch weeks earlier than expected.
Its cell-culture vaccine plant in Marburg, Germany had the potential to produce millions of doses per week, but it was difficult to predict output capacity for now.
Spokesman Eric Althoff said Novartis should have the vaccine ready in September or October. He was unsure if other companies had completed the first stage of the production process.
Glaxo said Friday it would be able to meet advance purchase commitments for 150 to 180 million doses, and the 50 million it donated to the WHO for developing countries.
Wayne Pisano, head of vaccines at Sanofi, the world’s largest flu vaccine supplier, said on Thursday his company would “produce the largest number of doses of vaccine in the shortest time frame,” though it would be another four months before the first supply of bulk concentrate was ready.
Cell-based technology
The A(H1N1) strain has spread widely, with 28,774 infections confirmed in 74 countries to date, including 144 deaths, according to the WHO’s latest tally.
Although the strain seems mild at present, health officials are worried it might return in a more virulent form in the northern hemisphere winter.
While commercial production of vaccines usually depends on how easily a virus strain grows in chicken eggs, Novartis said its cell-based technology means it can produce a vaccine without having to adapt the virus strain to grow in eggs.
“The cell-based manufacturing puts Novartis at the forefront of supplying pandemic vaccines to governments around the world,” said Helvea analyst Karl-Heinz Koch.
A number of national public health authorities have agreements with Baxter that allow them to place orders for its vaccine now that a pandemic has been declared by WHO, Baxter said.
Novartis said more than 30 governments have made requests for vaccine ingredients, combining preexisting pandemic vaccine supply agreements and new requests for vaccines across all production platforms.
The A(H1N1) flu outbreak is the first to be declared a pandemic since 1968, and WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said on Thursday different regulatory authorities needed to work together to speed registration of a safe vaccine.
The question of how the vaccine would be dispensed was still open, Novartis’ Althoff said.
“This will depend on government programs and what health authorities, the WHO and others say on how they want to make it available,” he said.
Airport precaution
Frontline airline and airport workers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, meanwhile, received anti-flu vaccine as a preventive measure against A(H1N1).
“A(H1N1) can strike anyone and it is part of preventive measures to give our personnel anti-flu vaccine to protect them,” said Ma. Lourdes Reyes, who chairs the Airline Operators Council.
“Aside from this, the booster shot is just a preparation for the heightened level of alert because the increase of cases reported previously in the country is very alarming. We are taking all the necessary precautions,” Reyes said.
More than 100 AOC members have been given flu shots.
“Safety and protection of our personnel is our top priority and we cannot compromise their future by not doing our part,” Reyes added.
Dr. Sid Arevalo of Solvay Pharma supervised the vaccination.
“You could just imagine if one of the employees of the airport is affected by the virus. How can you quarantine the whole airport to prevent it? Ninety percent of foreigners and Filipinos coming from various countries pass through the airport. This is the reason why we have to take precautionary measures to protect our people,” Onie Nakpil, also of AOC, said.
Manila International Airport Authority general manager Alfonso Cusi said all NAIA employees will be required to get flu shots.
Meanwhile, in Bulacan, provincial health officials said they received reports that a suspected A(H1N1) case involving a Filipino-Japanese student turned out negative.
“It’s negative,” said Dr. Rommel Pajela, Hagonoy health officer, in a text message to The STAR.
But the provincial public health office said it would have to seek confirmation from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in Manila. – With Rainier Allan Ronda, Dino Balabo, Rudy Santos, AP
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