Swine flu vaccine moves step nearer
Updated on 28 May 2009
UK scientists have produced a strain of the swine flu virus suitable for vaccine manufacture, health officials have said.
The move is a "crucial step" towards the large-scale production of a vaccine against the disease, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) said.
The virus strain was developed at the HPA's National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC), based near Potters Bar in Hertfordshire.
It is now being made available to drugs manufacturers and other flu laboratories worldwide.
A technique called reverse genetics was used to create a hybrid between the H1N1 swine flu virus and a tested laboratory strain.
The NIBSC is one of a handful of international laboratories in a World Health Organisation (WHO) network that are working towards a vaccine for the disease.
Scientists in the US and Australia have also developed virus strains that could be used to mass-produce a vaccine.
NIBSC director Dr Stephen Inglis said: "Our scientists have been working round the clock to develop a vaccine candidate since we received the first swine flu isolate from the USA at the beginning of May and I am delighted that they have been successful so quickly.
"The strain is now available for supply to vaccine manufacturers so that they can begin the first steps in the vaccine production process, and to other flu laboratories around the world for research.
"Our WHO network colleagues in the USA and Australia are also making good progress and we expect there soon to be a number of possible strains to use for large-scale manufacture of swine flu vaccine."
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