If everything goes in this way, India may attain a new milestone in worldwide health sector in the coming days. What has led to the growth of this optimism? Well, it is the World Health Organisation (WHO) who has already asked Serum Institute of India, the widely acclaimed Pune-based vaccine manufacturer, to contribute in the mass scale production of a vaccine against H1N1 once the technology is ready. What has been the response of Serum Institute? The Institute has confirmed its competence to deliver the same.

Serum Institute of India is a well-known manufacturer of immunobiologicals that include vaccines in India and is the fifth biggest maker of vaccine by volume, the top four being GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi-Aventis, Merck and Novartis. It should also be mentioned that half of the children throughout the globe at least, if not more, are immunized by vaccines made by the company, which is the world’s biggest maker of measles and DTP vaccines. Serum produces a billion doses a year selling in 140 countries. It is also one of the world’s lowest cost producers of vaccines and had sales of $250 million and net profits of $107 million.

On the other hand, Serum Institute declared on Saturday that it could even initiate animal studies of the vaccine within four months time, on condition that the WHO gave it the strains of the virus and reagents for manufacturing and testing the vaccine. In should be mentioned that Marie-Paule Kieny, Vaccine Research Director of WHO, said the organization has been funding the SII to help them acquire technology to start producing influenza vaccines.

Speaking on this, Dr S S Jadhav, Executive Director of Serum Institute of India, said, “WHO has been building capacity across the world to produce an emergency vaccine against the H5N1 bird flu virus if a pandemic broke out. They gave us the H5N1 pandemic strain. We are making the seasonal influenza vaccine as a proof of concept that we can handle the virus. In another three months time, a few thousand doses of the preliminary vaccine will be ready. WHO can now trust us with the H1N1 virus.”