Hungary’s Bird Flu Vaccine Developer to Get 8-Mln-Euro Loan

Hungary’s bird flu vaccine developer to get 8-mln-euro loan

BUDAPEST, Feb. 15 (Xinhua) — The Hungarian Development Bank will grant Omninvest Ltd., a pharmaceutical company, a loan of 2 billion forints (8 million euros) to promote production of a vaccine against bird flu, Hungarian Economics Minister Janos Koka announced Wednesday.

The government has decided to provide the company with another 1 billion forints (4 million euros) as subsidies for R&D, Koka said, adding that it will speed up registration of the invention both in Hungary and abroad.

Omninvest, which developed a vaccine against the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, said it was planning to add 1 billion forints (4 million euros) out of its own resources for the marketing of the vaccine.

Omninvest’s bird flu vaccine was proved to be effective in humans last October. It was one of some 40 laboratories in the world which received samples of bird flu virus from the World Health Organization (WHO).

The company has an exclusive license to produce bird flu vaccine for humans in Hungary, and all preparations have been made to start large-scale production of the vaccine in case of an epidemic, local reports said.

Hungarian authorities reported the discovery of bird flu cases in the south of the country on Wednesday after dead swans were tested positive for the H5NI strain.

The H5N1 strain has killed tens of millions of birds worldwide since 2003. A total of 165 people have been confirmed to be infected with the virus and at least 88 of them have died, mostly in Asia, according to the WHO.