Punes own H1N1 vaccine,in intra-nasal,ready-to-sniff form,is set to hit the market in the next 10 days. Cyrus Poonawalla,chief managing director of the Serum Institute of India,one of the lead players in paediatric vaccines,is busy giving free doses of the intra-nasal vaccine against the H1N1 virus to his staff,children,doctors and friends. All one has to do is just take a sniff of the liquid vaccine, said Poonawalla who has decided to distribute free vaccine worth Rs 1 crore. His team has been involved in research and development of the H1N1 vaccine following clinical trials. There was delay in issuing the licence for mass production. Our vaccine will be available in the market within 8-10 days, he said. This is a user-friendly vaccine and we are in the process of completing formalities. We want to ensure adequate stock of doses of the vaccine and,depending on the reaction from the public,will initially manufacture half-a-million doses in July and another one million in August. We will test market conditions before manufacturing on a large scale, Poonawalla said. The vaccine,to be priced at Rs 190 per unit,will be available in a syringe and delivered via a pump-like mechanism atop the syringe.
