Japan plans to produce enough H1N1 flu vaccine to treat 20 million

According to a newly published report from Reuters, Japan plans to produce enough H1N1 flu vaccine to treat 20 million people by the end of year, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Friday. Japan has 410 confirmed cases of the new form of flu, although most have recovered and no patients showed serious symptoms, the health ministry said.

While most H1N1 flu cases around the world have been mild, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned countries to get ready for more serious infections if the virus mutates.

So far, there have been more than 20,000 cases of the new flu around the world and 126 deaths.

Japanese makers will start producing the vaccine for the new flu strain as early as in early July, with vaccinations available from around November, the newspaper said.

Health Minister Yoichi Masuzoe said it would take more time for Japan to decide production details for the vaccine doses.

"The National Institute of Infectious Diseases will probably be able to give makers the seed of a vaccine around June 10," Masuzoe told reporters when asked about the newspaper report.

Interestingly, in his report last Friday, BioMedReport's M.E. Garza had reported that Hemispherx Biopharma was in deep discussions with the Japanese about selling them Ampligen as an adjuvant (booster) for any vaccine produced for the H1N1 flu.

Below is an excerpt from that story:

The same drug used for CFS has now taken center stage in the fight against so called swine flu (H1N1). The company has made headlines in recent days as it has moved full force into collaboration with health ministries and scientists in Japan. In fact, BiomedReports has learned that the company is officially on the fast track to making some substantial sales of its products to Japan. Purchases that will initially treat as many as 30 million Japanese military a

nd paramedic personnel may be announced soon. When the orders come, research indicates that first year sales figures for Ampligen as a vaccine booster may actually dwarf sales for Ampligen as a treatment for CFS. That trend, as currently projected, will continue for at least the first two years.

“The highest level of the Japanese government and public medical community is now focused exclusively on our product,” says Carter. “They stopped working on all other adjuvants (boosters) and are only working with this one because they’ve found that it enhances the vaccines by 100 fold.”

In so called animal (monkey) models, all of the sickest animals' lives have been saved after researchers added a little Ampligen to the administered novel influenza vaccines. This has all been reviewed by the Japanese National Institutes of Health with great attention since the H1N1 virus has been spreading in that part of the world swiftly and threatens to breakout even further into Asia.

“Drug safety is the number one priority in Japan,” explains Dr. Carter. “Research there is excellent and their scientists have an outstanding historical safety record.Our research and results are independently verifiable, and internationally recognized.”

Another tremendous platform in the influenza space is Hemispherx’s flagship product, Alferon which is already approved by the FDA.

“That’s already passed FDA muster,” says Dr. Carter. “Furthermore, It’s a fully natural interferon- all others are manipulated. That makes it the most effective interferon available. It can stop the SARS coronavirus, Avian Influenza (H5N1) and we have a treatment program with plenty of this drug already stockpiled.”

In this country, researchers are also looking for ways to deliver a one-two punch to flu viruses, since most antiviral drugs target only half of the cell-infection cycle of viruses such as H1N1. A team of researchers is looking to shut down the whole process according to a report in this week's Scientific American.

Flu experts on Friday told the World Health Organization it should provide information on the danger posed by swine flu when it next changes its pandemic alert level.

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan held an hour-long telephone conference with top scientists from around the world to discuss the latest developments in the outbreak that has infected almost 22,000 people.

The experts appeared to back a proposal by some of the WHO's 193 member countries last month to include severity in future assessments. Governments fear that declaring a global pandemic before the full danger of the disease is known could spark panic and confusion, leading to costly and unnecessary actions such as border closures and trade restrictions.

So far the Geneva-based agency has made the geographic spread of the virus its sole indicator for deciding when to increase the pandemic alert.

Chan previously consulted the same group before twice raising the alert level last month.

The disease has meanwhile spread to 69 countries, with the WHO saying that Britain, Spain, Japan, Chile and Australia are moving toward the stage where the flu is passing rapidly from person to person, rather than being brought in by travelers.

"The committee gave further advice regarding a number of parameters, the monitoring of which will provide information for the assessment of the severity of the epidemic," WHO said in a statement after the meeting. It did not specify what these parameters would be and WHO officials could not be reached late Friday.

Hemispherx Biopharma received an invitation, funded entirely by the government of Italy, to present its technology platform for influenza control, yesterday and today at the “International Conference on Biotechnologies and Finance” in Rome's Sheraton Parco de Medici.

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