By IANS,
New Delhi : The indigenous swine flu vaccine launched this week is yet to hit the markets in Delhi as against claims by Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad that it will be available from Friday.
Manufactured by medicine giant Cadila Healthcare, Vaxiflu-S is an egg-based, single dosed vaccine which gives immunity against the deadly H1N1 virus for a year.
At the launch of the vaccine Thursday, both Azad and Cadila Chairman Pankaj Patel had said that these would be available in the market from Friday.
The situation in the market is, however, different with most of the chemist shops in Delhi not having the stocks.
“We don’t have the vaccine in the market as yet,” said Mukesh, who works with the Batra Medical Corner in Karol Bagh.
North Delhi Chemists’ Association president Ashok Jain told IANS: “Cadila has not marketed it yet. There is no stock available with any stockist in Delhi.”
He was, however, not worried over the delay.
“There isn’t much demand for the vaccine. There have been no recent cases in Delhi, so nobody seems to be concerned about it at present,” Jain added.
The high price tag of the drug is seen as another reason for the low demand.
Said Mukesh: “It is to be priced above Rs.350, no one will spend that much specially as the epidemic has slowed down.”
Four companies — Cadila Healthcare, Serum Institute of India, Bharat Biotech and Panacea Biotech — were granted research aid for developing an indigenous vaccine for the virus which has claimed more than 1,500 lives in the last one year.
The vaccine by Serum Institute is likely to hit the market by the end of this month, while Bharat Biotech and Panacea are likely to launch their versions by July and August, respectively.
No fresh cases of swine flu have been reported in the capital during the last two months.
At least 30 new cases of the flu were reported all over the country last week while four people died.
The highest number of 21 cases was reported from Maharashtra last week.
A total of 31,934 people have been affected by the H1N1 flu in India so far. The casualties from the flu reached 1,531 May 31.