After the wastage of over 20 lakh doses of the Japanese Encephalitis vaccine in Uttar Pradesh and other parts of the country in past two years, the China-based manufacturer has finally agreed to upgrade the vaccine vial monitors put on JE vaccine supplied to India. The UP government had, in 2008, refused to use 4 lakh doses of JE vaccine and refused around 16 lakh this year as the vial monitors on them showed second or third stage of heat exposure.

While in the first year, the state and Centre had been pointing fingers at one another, this year the Centre discovered that the problem lay in the vaccine vials supplied from China. Following this, a delegation from China-based manufacturer, China National Biotech Group visited India recently and also took a round of the Karnal-based Government Medical Store. The company conducted a study and found that the stability of the vaccine was much higher than the stability of the vaccine vial monitors since the latter was more heat sensitive. It has agreed to upgrade the vial monitors from the next batch of supplies, due around June 2010.

Talking to The Indian Express from China, Lingjiang Yang, Manager for International Business and Co-operation, China Biotech Group, said, “It was found that the category of VVMs used so far were not in accordance with the stability of our vaccine.”

Experts said that VVM-7 is of moderate stability, which will be heat stable for seven days till a temperature upto 37 degree C, for 45 days at 25 degree C and for 2 years if the temperature is maintained till 5 degree C. However, VVM-14 found suitable for use in India is of medium stability which would be effective for three years at the right temperature.