Woman dies of bird flu, vaccine trials to start
By Zhao Huanxin (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-11-24 05:40

Usually, the first phase of clinical testing takes nine months but in the case of the bird flu vaccine, initial results could be available as soon as three months later, Lu said.

In the second phase, tests will be conducted on many more people, she said, without giving any specifics.

When approved, the vaccine will be made available at a price even cheaper than normal flu jabs, Lu said.

The vaccine was jointly developed by Sinovac and the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention over 21 months, targeting the H5N1 virus strain.

Even if the virus strain mutates, experts could substitute the core virus in the vaccine with the latest strain, according to Lu.

"The vaccine we have now is specifically against the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus. But we are also capable of producing vaccines against other types of influenza if the virus changes into other forms," Yin Weidong, managing director of Sinovac, told China Daily last week.

Sinovac also developed a SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) vaccine - the world's first - which has passed the first phase of human testing.

(China Daily 11/24/2005 page1)