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JAKARTA : Indonesia has signed an agreement with a US company to develop a human bird flu vaccine and ensure it benefits from any commercial exploitation of the deadly virus, despite concerns of the World Health Organisation.
Under the memorandum of understanding, which has yet to be finalised, Indonesia will provide samples of the H5N1 strain of bird flu and Baxter International Inc. will develop a vaccine and also help Indonesia set up its own production facilities.
Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari said the agreement would secure an affordable supply of vaccine for Indonesia, which has suffered 63 bird flu deaths so far, the highest in the world.
"It is for our own use. If in the near future we need it, we would be ready," she said.
When approved for licensing, Indonesia would also have the right to market it domestically and export it to other countries, she said.
Baxter has already developed a vaccine for humans for the Vietnamese strain of bird flu, which is currently undergoing trials, but Supari said Indonesia needed a vaccine for its own specific strain.
She added that Indonesia's move was in line with the WHO's call for all countries to prepare and develop their own vaccine production capacity.
Details of the plan still have to be agreed with Baxter.
Baxter president Kim Bush said the memorandum set up the framework to "continue to develop the vaccine to get it to a point where it can be used in humans" and "enable some of the manufacturing process to be done here in Indonesia".
But he stressed it would not prevent Indonesia from working with other firms.
"This in no ways precludes the government in working in parallel with other companies or other technologies," Bush said.
"This in absolutely no way gives Baxter privileged access to any of the strains," he said.
Bush said his company had moved at the request of Jakarta.
"The Indonesian government requested it, that they be able to do some of the manufacturing, to be close to the situation should they need a large amount of products," Bush said.
The WHO said on Tuesday it was concerned about Indonesia's decision to stop sending human bird flu virus samples to laboratories overseas ahead of the signing.
It said the stance had raised questions about a global network of free virus sharing that has been a cornerstone of overall efforts to tackle influenza.
Supari denied Indonesia had stopped sending samples, saying it was merely seeking assurances they would not be used for commercial purposes by the recipients.
Vaccines for many diseases have previously been commercially produced using samples from poor nations, which have complained that other, richer countries have been the ones who have mainly benefited.
Indonesia's deal was to ensure it would also profit from the development of a vaccine, the minister said.
"What is clear is that we are benefiting, meaning that we have a role here," she said.
"We have the virus. We are the ones who are sick," the minister said, adding she did not want it to be "as usual, the weaker countries who are put at a disadvantage" when having to buy products from richer ones.
Scientists fear the H5N1 strain could mutate into a version that transmits more easily from human to human, triggering a global pandemic.
Bush and Supari said that if the virus mutated in that way, Baxter would be able quickly to produce a vaccine adapted to the new strain. - AFP/ls/so
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