Sinovac, China-based developer and provider of vaccines, has declared that it has completed the construction of the H1N1 virus seed bank necessary to produce a virus antigen.
Sinovac received the seed virus from the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) on June 8, 2009. The company expects to complete production of the first batch and initiate clinical trials of H1N1 vaccine by the end of July 2009.
Sinovac’s production of Anflu for the 2009/2010 Northern Hemisphere influenza season, is almost completed. The company said that production of H1N1 vaccine will not affect its production and launch of the seasonal flu vaccine for this coming flu season.
Weidong Yin, Chairman, President and CEO of Sinovac, said: Having completed the construction of our virus seed bank, our H1N1 vaccine production remains on track and we look forward to initiating clinical trials by the end of next month.”