Variables in flu vaccine production: Adimmune

While inaugurating its new plant in Taichung County, central Taiwan, the management of Adimmune Corp. -- the only company in Taiwan qualified to mass produce the A(H1N1) vaccine -- said the price of the domestically developed vaccine could be controlled to remain as low US$10 per dose, compared to 10 euros or US$15-US$20 per dose for counterparts quoted on the international pharmaceuticals market.

Adimmune has received vials of the virus strain for vaccine production from four World Health Organization (WHO) -authorized labs in Australia, Britain and the United States but has yet to decide which strain to use for domestic development, said Ignatius Wei, deputy CEO and president of Adimmune.

Adimmune will produce the vaccine based on chicken embryos, said Chang Chin-chuan, vice president of the company.

A total of 8 million chicken eggs meeting a specific set of requirements that were sourced domestically since last year will be used to produce the vaccine, Chang said, adding that some 10 million doses are expected to be produced between July and September this year.

The company is planning to place orders for additional chicken eggs for medical use from abroad, at a unit price of NT$18-NT$20, he added.

“At issue is the fact that Adimmune has not yet conducted animal or human trials on the A(H1N1) vaccine and nobody in the world knows so far whether one dose is enough to contain the infection or allow the patient to produce enough antibodies,” he went on.

“If it requires two doses to make the vaccination effective, Adimmune will be forced to ramp up production to meet the orders placed by the Department of Health,” he added.

According to DOH Minister Yeh Ching-chuan, the Centers for Disease Control will authorize an open bid at the end of June for Taiwan's purchases of 5 million doses of the vaccine from overseas.

Nevertheless, he predicted that global demand will exceed supply as the vaccine is in high demand worldwide since swine flu has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Taiwan is currently one of only 11 countries capable of producing A(H1N1) vaccine.

Adimmune Corp., Taiwan's only human vaccine manufacturer and the largest vaccine-producing company in Asia, has a maximum annual capacity of 30 million doses of vaccine.

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