Sinovac Biotech, a developer and provider of vaccines in China, has received a certificate of approval from the Secretaria de Salud to distribute PANFLU.1, its H1N1 pandemic influenza (swine flu) vaccine, in Mexico.
The certificate is valid until October 13, 2014. Laboratorios Imperiales S.A. de C.V., a biopharmaceutical company which has operated in Mexico since 1935, is the exclusive distributor of Sinovac's vaccine products in the Mexican market, pursuant to a prior distribution agreement signed in 2005 with its affiliate.
PANFLU.1 is the first China-developed vaccine approved for human use in Mexico and the first H1N1 vaccine to be registered in Mexico. Sinovac will need to obtain permission from the Chinese government prior to exporting its H1N1 vaccine to Mexico. Sinovac is in the process of fulfilling existing orders for a total of 6.3 million doses of PANFLU.1 for the Chinese central government. Sinovac expects to complete the delivery of 4.5 million doses to the Chinese central government by the end of October 2009.
To date, there have been 45,809 confirmed cases of H1N1 pandemic influenza in Mexico, and 271 people have died.
