First Swine Flu Vaccine

The A(H1N1) flu virus has infected thousands of people in over 70 countries and it continues to infect more & more people, thus it reaching the pandemic level 6 alert.

Although the virus is not lethal, it still needs a vaccine to stop its spread which is why several pharmaceutical companies are trying to develop a vaccine for the swine flu virus.

Novartis had been the first to announce that their first batch of A(H1N1) flu vaccine is ready to undergo pre-clinical trials and said that they are hoping to produce the vaccine by September or the most by October of this year.

Their first batch of vaccine had been produced earlier than expected and they hope to start their trial testing this July to see if it is indeed successful so they could mass produce it.

Novartis received $289 million from the U.S. government to develop the vaccine to fight the A(H1N1) flu virus. Sanofi-Pasteur in France said they are also developing and hopes to have the vaccine ready for clinical trials soon as week. GlaxoSmithKline from Great Britain also promises to develop and produce the vaccine in 4 to 6 months for the H5N1 bird flu virus for the World Health Organization.

With the continued spread of the A(H1N1) virus, the sooner the vaccine would be produced, the faster we can prevent it from further spreading.

               

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