BIRD-FLU VACCINE :Racing against the clock

In a race to avert the worst affects of an influenza pandemic springing from a mutated bird-flu virus, the Thai government is speeding up negotiations with three world vaccine producers for a joint venture to produce H5N1 human vaccine in Thailand.

However, many uncertainties loom. One of the chief concerns among Thai doctors now is a news leak that says the first human trials of a vaccine in the United States have been unsuccessful.

“Initial reports [about the trials] indicate that the immunity produced by the vaccine is low,” said Dr Tawee Chotpitayasunondh, chief of Thailand’s pandemic medical response team. “What’s worse, the virus is still mutating and we don’t know which version of it will cause the pandemic. I don’t think the world will have an effective vaccine until six months after the pandemic breaks out, and it could take a year or longer before Thailand can get some.”

The Public health Ministry is attempting to avert the worst-case scenario of 26 million Thais – or 40 per cent of the population – being infected in a pandemic outbreak. It is currently negotiating separately with companies in France, Japan and China to obtain their technologies, said Dr Paichit Warachit, director general of the Medical Science Department.

Paichit led a delegation of Thai doctors to France last month to negotiate with Sanofi Pasteur, a major producer of seasonal flu vaccine, for establishment of a joint venture to produce vaccine in Thailand.

The company recently produced 8,000 “investigational doses” of a bird-flu vaccine for clinical trials by the US National Institute of Health and was contracted to produce another two million doses.

Paichit said there were difficulties in Thailand’s negotiation with Sanofi. Thailand preferred to have a joint venture, with the French company providing technologies for facilities to be built by the Thai government, but Sanofi wants simply to sell bulk vaccine to Thailand, ready for packaging.

“We want the technology for our long-term medical preparedness,” Paichit said. “But a big company tends to pay little attention to a small country like us [even though we might be at the epicentre of a pandemic outbreak].”

Paichit said he would return to China next month to discuss another possible joint venture. A return trip to Japan is also planned. He declined to name the vaccine producers he would meet in those countries because he felt they might want to avoid publicity before negotiations were complete.

The Thai government has pledged Bt2 billion to set up a vaccine factory, and Paichit is expected to wrap up a deal and make plans for the facility to submit to the government soon.

“We are trying to strike a deal with one of them [vaccine producers] as soon as possible,” he said. “We have been to three countries in the past few months. We are racing against time because no one knows when a pandemic might break out. It’s not an easy job because we have to be fast and make sure about [vaccine] safety at the same time.

“We are responsible for millions of lives and we don’t want to let anyone down,” he added.

Despite the efforts, leading microbiologist Dr Prasert Thongcharoen, from Siriraj Hospital, remains sceptical about the production of human-flu vaccine in Thailand.

He said he supported efforts to build a vaccine plant in Thailand, but pointed out that the country had little experience in producing human vaccine. The toughest process was passing the stringent regulatory requirements of the World Health Organisation.

For similar reasons, he also expressed doubts about ongoing attempts to produce a vaccine in Vietnam.

Nantiya Tangwisutijit
The Nation