Swiss accept third vaccine against swine flu
The Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products, Swissmedic, has authorised a third vaccine against swine flu A/H1N1.
The product is called Celtura and is made by the Swiss pharmaceutical group, Novartis, which is based in Basel.
In a statement on Friday, the federal authorities said that unlike vaccines already authorised in October – Focetria and Pandemrix – the antigen components of Celtura were not based on hens’ eggs but on a cell culture.
They said that on the basis of clinical data available, Celtura had been permitted for children above the age of three and for adults of all age groups.
But the data had shown that for adults over the age of 40, sufficient immunisation was only reached after a second vaccination of the drug. This had to be done three weeks after the first.
Swissmedic said it had not received any further applications for the authorisation of vaccines against swine flu.
swissinfo.ch and agencies
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