China approves 1st domestic A/H1N1 vaccine

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China has approved the A/H1N1 flu vaccine produced by a domestic pharmaceutical company. It's the first to get a license in the global race.

The State Food and Drug Administration, or SFDA, issued the license for Sinovac's vaccine called Panflu.1 on Thursday. The vaccine had earlier passed SFDA experts' evaluation.

Zhang Wei, director of Registration Dept. of SFDA, said, "Clinical trials show that Panflu.1 is very safe and its immunogenicity factors reach international standards. It can be safely given to people aged 3 to 60 in a single shot."

Sinovac says it can produce five million doses of the vaccine by October 1st, and 20 to 30 million per year.

The company says it will focus first on meeting the Chinese government's needs. And it's open to discuss the possible exports.

Yin Weidong, Managing director of Sinovac Biotech, said, "We'll do our best to meet the demand of Chinese customers as well as those from other countries. This is a problem of quality and registration. We've been trying to improve our production capacity. We hope more people can use the vaccine made in China and we are willing to provide it to other countries."