China's Sinovac Biotech says it plans to ramp up mass production of a new bird flu vaccine after its first clinical trial found no adverse reactions among the 120 participants in the study. Sinovac says it expects to produce 20 million doses of the vaccine annually within a few years. "These results indicate that we should expand our production capabilities to prepare for mass production of the vaccine against a possible bird flu pandemic," a company spokesperson was quoted as saying by Xinhua on Wednesday. The vaccine faces two more rounds of testing before it can be approved for marketing under existing Chinese regulations. A number of vaccine makers, though, have noted that the usual rules for producing a vaccine are likely to be discarded in the event a human pandemic breaks out.
- read a report on Sinovac's plans from The Independent