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Should an influenza pandemic strike, having a human vaccine would be crucial. Unfortunately, the current egg-based vaccine manufacturing techniques, largely unchanged since the 1950's, takes months and would yield only around 500 million doses in year's time.
While there are new manufacturing technologies on the horizon that would shorten production time and greatly increase the yield, they are still 2 or 3 years away. Even with this new cell culture technology, there are logistical bottlenecks that could occur, and so nations are taking a hard look at developing their own in-house manufacturing capability.
Today, 95% of the world's vaccines are manufactured in 11 countries. Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
This from AFP.
Taiwan eyes mass production of bird flu vaccines in 2008
TAIPEI (AFP) - A Taiwanese research team said it had produced a bird flu vaccine that had passed initial animal tests.
"The vaccine against the H5N1 strain has passed tests on mice," said Pele Chuang, the head of a 25-member team at the National Health Research Institute.
The H5N1 bird flu strain is potentially deadly to humans.
The vaccine, using cell culture technology, needs validation by the health ministry before human tests are undertaken.
They are due to be completed before the end of June next year.
If all goes to plan, mass production of the vaccines -- running up to a million doses a year -- would begin late 2008, Chuang said.
And according to this excerpt from today's Bangkok Post, Thailand is also pursuing their own vaccine manufacturing strategy.
Meanwhile, the Public Health Ministry will seek cabinet approval next week for construction of a plant to produce human influenza vaccine.
Disease Control Department chief Thawat Sundarachan yesterday said the project was part of preparations for a possible human flu pandemic triggered by an outbreak of H5N1 bird flu virus.
''We have to make sure there are adequate regular vaccine supplies for Thailand's future needs,'' he said.
At present, stockpiled influenza vaccine is enough for only 300,000 people, who would be mostly health professionals.
Apart from health-care staff, an estimated nine million elderly people and children are considered the most vulnerable to influenza.
Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla said he is currently seeking help from the China National Biotec Group to find a company which can transfer to Thailand technical know-how on flu vaccine development. Such government-to-government cooperation, however, needs approval from the prime minister.
Having the manufacturing capacity is just part of the equation, of course, but it's a big part of the equation. Without it, the vaccine option is moot. The logistics of distributing a vaccine during a pandemic remain considerable, and there would still be a delay between the start of a pandemic, and the availability of an effective vaccine.
With more than 6.5 billion people on this planet, and the ability to manufacture but 500 million doses of vaccine a year, countries without their own production facilities are nervously eyeing the queue, and wondering just how far back in the line their people would be standing.
Vaccine availability during a pandemic, literally, is now being perceived as a national security issue by many nations.
