A US company will soon conduct clinical trials of a bird flu vaccine in Singapore and Hong Kong, a health ministry official said here Wednesday. Baxter Healthcare will carry out the trials in the two nations using a strain of the virus found in Indonesia, the nation worst hit by bird flu with 77 deaths, the official said.
"Clinical trials will start in July this year in Singapore and Hong Kong," said Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih from the Indonesian health ministry.
"Ninety-eight people will participate on the trial," she said.
Sedyaningsih, who heads biomedics, pharmacy research and development at the ministry, said Singapore and Hong Kong were already prepared for the trial.
Indonesia signed an agreement with Baxter in February to develop a human bird flu vaccine and ensure it benefits from any treatment for the deadly virus.
Indonesian Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari has said that Indonesia would aim to produce about 20 million doses of the vaccine, for 10 percent of the population, in case of a pandemic.
The World Health Organisation says the H5N1 strain of the virus has infected at least 282 people and killed about 170, mostly in Southeast Asia, since the end of 2003.
