Live hepatitis A vaccine produced by a biotech producer based in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province has been given a green light to enter the Indian market, marking a debut export of China-made vaccines.

 

The hepatitis A vaccines independently developed by Chinese virologists have been inoculated on 130 million persons in China, which has helped bring down the incident rate of the infectious disease by 20 percent every year in China during the past decade.

 

The Zhejiang Pukang Biotech Co. said on Saturday that the vaccines with complete domestic intellectual property right were ready for export to India, after they passed human test and the ensuing observation for three years in the country.

 

Although China announced that it has basically controlled the prevalence of hepatitis A, there are still 1.4 million people found infected with the disease globally.

 

Vaccines remain the most effective way to curb the spreading of hepatitis diseases. Pukang Biotech is exploring exports of the vaccines to Guatemala and the Philippines.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 15, 2006)