The Chilean government has awarded a contract to Chinese biopharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech to supply its influenza vaccine ahead of the southern hemisphere winter.
The vaccine will be part of Chile’s nationwide immunisation programme, which public health body Cenabast said was “internationally recognised for its impact on public health protection, particularly among high-risk groups”.
Beijing-based Sinovac’s influenza vaccine uses an inactivated virus based on a split-virion platform – a widely used biotechnology that reduces side effects such as inflammation.
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Cenabast said the Chilean government would procure 8.65 million doses of the vaccine at a total cost of about US$14.7 million. It is the second year in a row that Sinovac will supply the vaccine to Chile.
It is due to arrive in January, and health authorities aim to begin the influenza immunisation campaign earlier than usual, in March, to protect against the H3N2 strain of influenza A that is spreading fast in Europe and parts of Asia.
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Influenza causes hundreds of millions of infections across the world each year, and around 650,000 deaths, according to the World Health Organization. Vaccination against influenza has considerably reduced the number of deaths, complications and hospitalisations from the virus.
