New Plant needed for flu virus production

Plans for a plant at King Mongkut's University of Technology Thon Buri has been scrapped because of problems with a five-year lease, he said, adding the new plant would be built in Saraburi's Kaeng Khoi district.

GPO research into the vaccine was now 90 per cent towards its goal and initial pro?duction could begin by year's end, he said.

Two million doses of "live vaccine" will be imported,half to be received on December 3 and the remainder by January 3.

He said the GPO was studying how the vaccine could survive at temperatures higher than 2-8 degrees Celsius for longer than one year, as it would extend the vac?cine life and save costs.

Meanwhile, a researcher said work on a "dead vaccine" by the National Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (Biotec) was behind schedule due to the inadequacy of up-to-standard laborato?ries and production of guinea pigs. The dead vaccine may be needed to cope with a second possible influenza outbreak.

"We don't yet have good-enough and clean-enough laboratories. Also we don't have enough guinea pigs," said Prasit Phalitpholkarnphim, deputy director of the Thailand National Science and Technology Development Agency.

"What we can rely on now to cope with an outbreak is the use of Oseltamivir in storage. But sufficient local industrial pro?duction of dead vaccine is not yet possible should there be a second outbreak," he said.