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NIH proposes Biological Production Division’s conversion into limited company

By Jamila Achakzai

ISLAMABAD: The National Institute of Health (NIH) has proposed restructuring of its Biological Production Division (BPD) into a limited company to seek private partnership for technology transfer and co-financing, said NIH Executive Director Masood Anwar during a briefing to journalists on Wednesday.

Awaits PM’s approval: He said the Health Ministry had approved the proposal supported by the Finance Division, Industries Ministry, Privatisation Commission, Planning Commission and Board of Investment. He said the NIH had been awaiting prime minister’s approval for the last one year.

“The BPD restructuring will revive production of some crucial vaccines and sera to a level that will provide effective leverage on price control of private sector production and imports,” he said.

He said the NIH had also submitted to the Health Ministry PC-1 of the construction of its new building. The facility will house four formulations, filling and packaging complexes, which will be an asset for the proposed limited company. He said the facility will have a life expectancy of 30 years and it will provide full cGMP and cGLP compliance acceptable to World Health Organisation (WHO).

New sera laboratory: He said the NIH had also planned to install a new sera-laboratory to increase production of anti-sera and provide cGMP and cGLP, WHO certified facility.

Anwar said the NIH had also floated a proposal to establish National Institute for Research in Vaccine Development where not only scientists from the NIH but also from institutes of HEC, Ministry of Science and Technology and others organisations would work together to develop new technologies and innovate existing technologies to suite the country’s needs and resources.

He said the NIH had already begun renovating its stables and buying more horses from its own resources to increase production of Anti-Snake Venom Serum (ASVS) and Anti-Rabies Serum (ARS).

He said in place of ammonium sulphate, caprylic acid’s production was being produced to double the yield of Anti-Snake Venom (ASV) Immunoglobulin i.e. from 25,000-30,000 vials to 50,000-60,000 vials per year. He said the NIH had experimented with another technique (pepsin digestion) but it didn’t yield required results.

Anwar said experiment with inoculation methodology had been successful and it would improve ARV production.

The NIH chief said that two to four litre capacity blood collection bags were under procurement. The bags will allow re-infusion of blood cells back to horses thus increasing their life expectancy, he said. He said tetanus toxoid concentrate had been successfully reformulated resulting in 80 percent increase in production i.e. from 2.75 million doses to 5.75 million doses per year.

He said an agreement was under consideration with LancetBio, representative of Butantan Institute of Brazil for immediate import of Cell Culture Anti-Rabies Vaccine in naked vials on deferred payment basis and supply to hospitals after labelling and packing at the NIH. He said old anti-rabies vaccine would be gradually phased out. This way, the NIH will meet the whole local demand i.e. 80,000 to 100,000 courses every year.

He said minimum essential civil work was in progress at measles and rabies plant. He said new freeze dryers had reached the NIH and were being installed. He said the installation would take six months to complete following which measles and cell culture rabies vaccines would be rolled out.

Anwar said basic manufacturing technology had been acquired from International Vaccine Institute of Korea for production of new typhoid vaccine.

He said the NIH had forwarded separate PC-1s of establishment of new Sera Laboratory and National Centre for Vaccine Research Development to the Health Ministry for submission to Planning Commission.

He said the government had provided no funding for vaccine production to the NIH between 1995 and 2005. During the decade, the NIH had to bear all these expenses from its own resources, he said.

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