Battling Hepatitis: Production of locally-developed interferon to continue

Health ministry gives go ahead on recommendation of NA Standing Committee on Health.

ISLAMABAD: The health ministry on Tuesday gave a go ahead to a team of researchers to produce a locally-developed anti-hepatitis vaccine for a clinical trial. The permission to manufacture the interferon was given on the recommendation of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Health, which met on Tuesday with Dr Nadeem Ehsan in the chair.

The committee also prohibited the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) from harassing the research team, headed by Prof Dr Javed Akram and Dr Riazuddin.

Last month, Dr Akram told the committee that an official of FIA, Azher Mehmood, was harassing the team.

Dr Akram had also revealed that 100,000 interferon injections, costing about Rs500 million, had expired in December because Ministry of Health did not allow the vaccine to be distributed.

The locally-developed interferon costs a fraction of the vaccine imported from abroad. The research team consists of doctors from Allama Iqbal Medical College and Jinnah hospital Complex in Lahore.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 12^th, 2011.