Animal trials for the H1N1 vaccine begin in India

India's hope for a H1N1 vaccine has got a shot in the arm with Serum Institute beginning animal trials for the vaccine, a prelude to the much tougher human trials.

India's hope for a H1N1 vaccine has got a shot in the arm with Serum Institute beginning animal trials for the vaccine, a prelude to the much tougher human trials.

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"Animal trials for the H1N1 vaccine have started," Rajeev M Dhere, Senior Director, Serum Institute of India, told PTI.

Around 500 doses of the H1N1 vaccine will be administered to animals over a period of 40 to 50 days and the report on toxicity and immunogenicity will be submitted to the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for permission to undertake Phase I human clinical trials.

"We hope to finish the animal trials by November end or December first week and begin human trials thereafter with permission from the DGCI," Dhere said.

All clinical trials for the vaccine are expected to end by February, he said.

"If the human trials are successful, by March the vaccine should be made available. We have the technology to produce the vaccine that can be pressed into service immediately for commercial production depending upon the scale of requirement after regulatory clearances," he said.

"Going by our animal data, so far, the results are satisfactory," Dhere said.