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Bird flu vaccine trials

BEIJING: A Chinese-made bird flu vaccine has been approved by the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) for a second phase of clinical trials. The second phase of clinical trials will further test the vaccine's tolerance, safety, and immunogenicity to the H5N1 virus strain, according to Yin Weidong, President of Sinovac Biotech, the Beijing-based pharmaceutical company behind the trials.

The first phase of trials ended last June with none of the 120 persons injected with the vaccine experiencing any serious side-effects.

The SFDA has also approved trials for a H5N1 split virus vaccine.

A researcher with Sinovac announced that some 880 volunteers are expected to participate in the trials for the two vaccines.

Zhang Jiansan, vice-president of Sinovac said the company is planning to expand its production facilities to produce massive quantities of the vaccine after the drug has completed the SFDA-led trials.

It is still hard for people to catch the H5N1-strain of the bird flu virus, but experts fear it may mutate into a form that spreads easily among people, potentially sparking a pandemic. — Xinhua

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