Kolkata: The Centre today said an indigenously-developed swine flu vaccine would be ready in four months but should any other country develop one in the meantime, it would be imported.
"The development of the vaccine in our country is at an advanced stage. I am absolutely confident that it will be developed within a couple of months and clinical trials will take another two months," Union Minister of State for Health Dinesh Trivedi said at an interaction with members of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce.
Maintaining that not enough quantities of the vaccine developed in the country would be available in the initial stages of production, he said, "Our view is that whoever develops the vaccine in whichever country, we will get it."
Trivedi said the distribution of Tamiflu was being controlled to prevent its indiscriminate use so that the H1N1 virus does not become drug resistant.
"But we will change our strategy in keeping with the situation. Like in Pune, Tamiflu is being given to patients even before their test results are out," he said.
It would not be feasible for private investors to set up swine flu testing labs as those would be very expensive, Trivedi said.
"The labs and the equipment have to be accredited internationally. The technology is not easily available. The government lab has world class technicians and equipment. It takes nearly four months to put the lab in place and its daily operational costs is around Rs one lakh," he said.
Bureau Report
