# 1476
Note: My on-again, off-again ISP is back on again. At least for the moment.
Iran, which according to official statements, doesn't have bird flu . . . has entered into an alliance with Indonesia to produce bird flu vaccine based on the Indonesian strain.
Indonesia has refused to share virus samples with the WHO (World Health Organization) for the past year, but has entered into at least two private agreements (the other is with Baxter, International) to produce vaccines.
This report from Iran Daily.
Bird Flu Vaccine Deal With Indonesia
Indonesia and Iran have reached a tentative deal to co-produce bird flu vaccines, Indonesia’s health minister announced Tuesday. Siti Fadilah Supari said Iran has an advanced pharmaceutical industry, which would be capable of producing bird flu vaccines using Indonesian virus.
The tentative agreement, made available to The Associated Press, was signed in Tehran in November and stipulated that the ’parties agreed to cooperate in the field of ... vaccine production’ without specifying bird flu. Details of how the two nations would cooperate were not immediately clear, but Supari said a concrete plan should be ready by the time Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visits Iran later this year.
Health Minister Kamran Baqeri Lankarani said in late November that five new drugs had been produced in the country.
He pointed out that the Health Ministry is currently working on registration of these drugs and it is hoped that the medicines will be marketed by March, MNA reported.
Lankarani told reporters that Iran is among the first two countries in eastern Mediterranean region in terms of biotechnology. “The government has focused on investing on human resources with a scientific approach in biotechnology so that the capacity of admitting postgraduate university students in these courses has doubled,“ he added.
