Vaccine-maker Bharat Biotech is working on producing swine flu vaccine in bulk.

"To deal with outbreaks and have a swift turnaround time, Bharat Biotech plans to build an inventory of bulk vaccine so that the response time going forward is reduced to a large extent," Krishna Ella, CMD of Bharat Biotech, told newspersons here on Tuesday.

It normally takes three months to manufacture a vaccine, which can be used for one year.

The Hyderabad-based company produces HNVAC, the only flu vaccine to be manufactured in cell culture. It had to destroy its swine flu vaccine stocks earlier because of poor demand and short shelf-life of the product. It has a production capacity of 10 million doses per month.

"We have some arbitration going on with the Government (to produce vaccine in bulk),’’ Ella said without disclosing other details. The company was collecting large samples and was more interested in understanding the genotypes of the virus than commercial motives, he added.

Rafi Ahmed, Director, Emory Vaccine Center and Georgia Research Alliance and a well-known immunologist, said the need of the hour was to sequence the H1N1 virus in India. "I encourage scientists in India and other countries to develop a universal vaccine to offer protection from potentially dangerous influenza mutations," he said, adding that the WHO was already working on this front.

At present, GSK, Novartis and Sanofi are the major producers of flu vaccine.

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