As many as 50,000 vials of the live attenuated lyophilised vaccine, produced from H-2 strain of the virus and sold under the brand name Biovac A, are being airlifted from China and will be available in the State from Thursday, S. Nagaraj, vice-president, sales and marketing, Wockhardt, said at a press conference here on Monday.

He said response from doctors had been good and the first batch of vials would last four or five months. Immunogenicity and tolerability of the vaccine was confirmed in a clinical trial conducted among 200 children in KEM hospital, Pune. "No side effect had been reported in the trials carried out over a period of three months," he said.

According to him, the new-generation vaccine is advantageous as it offers protection for 15 years and convenience of a single-dose administration for both children and adults. It can be administered subcutaneously in the dermatoid region of the arm. The vaccine is priced at Rs. 1,100, excluding taxes. An international vaccine, Zhepu, was developed in 1987 and introduced in China in 1992. The co-inventors of the vaccine, Fangcheng Zhunag and Chai ShaoAi, who were present at the press conference, said till date, over 120 million people had been administered the vaccine in China.

Replying to queries, Mr. Nagaraj said there were no plans to get the technology transferred from the Chinese company to manufacture the vaccine in India. "We will be airlifting the vaccine from China and will be marketing it here," he said.

The company had been given permission to advertise the vaccine by the Union Government and plans were on to create an awareness about it among medical professionals. Further clinical trials of the vaccine were scheduled in Chandigarh and Delhi.

He said Wockhardt, the fifth major pharma major in the country, had also plans to launch varicella (chickenpox) and Japanese encephalitis vaccines in India.