GENEVA -- The World Health Organization said Friday it was hopeful that the pharmaceutical industry would be ready to produce an anti-swine flu vaccine by the end of June or early July.
"We're hopeful that by the end of June by the beginning July this will be the time that commercial companies will be in a position of being able to make a vaccine," said interim Assistant Director General Keiji Fukuda.
However, Fukuda said experts were still mulling whether to give the go ahead for production as this may reduce or halt the manufacture of vaccines for seasonal flu.
"We will hold off on making this decision for a little while," he added.
Production of up to 4.9 billion doses a year of a vaccine against the new influenza A(H1N1) virus would be possible, according to a forecast presented to vaccine makers this week.
Apart from weighing the impact of the new virus against that of seasonal flu, issues like dosage and safety testing also have to be settled.
"There will need to be fast tracking of some of these studies," Fukuda said.
The WHO hopes to send candidate virus samples to drug companies by the end of this month to serve as a reference in making the vaccine.
Thirty vaccine makers from 19 industrialized and developing countries were invited by the WHO to a meeting on Tuesday to discuss production of a vaccine against swine flu.
A key issue for the meeting was the cost of the vaccine and its availability in the most vulnerable and poor countries.
The WHO is seeking funding from the World Bank and international health funds or foundations to help finance vaccine supply in such nations.
Fukuda underlined that a vaccine was one of the key steps to ward off a potential swine flu pandemic as the new virus spreads around the world, despite its relatively mild symptoms for now in most cases.
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