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Sinovac gets first production license for A/H1N1 flu vaccine

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-09-03 15:38

BEIJING: China approved Thursday the A/H1N1 flu vaccine produced by domestic pharmaceutical company Sinovac, making it the first to get a production license in the global race.

A teacher checks the temperature of pupils at the entrance to a primary school in order to identify symptoms of the H1N1 flu virus in Luoyang, Henan province September 1, 2009.[Agencies]

The State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) issued the license for Sinovac's vaccine called Panflu.1 on Thursday, after it passed SFDA's experts evaluation on August 31.

Panflu.1 could safely be given to people aged from 3 to 60 years old in a single shot, 15 microgram dose, according to the evaluation report.

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Sinovac had the capacity to produce 5 million doses of vaccine before October1, and 20 million to 30 million doses per year, said president Yin Weidong.

Another A/H1N1 flu vaccine, produced by Chinese pharmaceutical company Hualan Biological Engineering Inc.,is also hopeful to be given the country's second approval this week.