Swiss pharmaceuticals company Novartis AG said Friday it has produced a first batch of experimental swine flu vaccine, a day after the World Health Organization declared the disease a pandemic, AP reported. The vaccine hasn't yet been tested and cannot be used in humans yet. It was made in cells, rather than grown in eggs as is usually the case with vaccines, the company said. Vaccines grown in cells currently account for less than 5 percent of the world's vaccine production, and experts say this is unlikely to change soon. The WHO says drugmakers will likely have vaccines against swine flu approved and ready for sale after September. WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told reporters in Geneva that the global body is making available to all qualified manufacturers a strain of the virus A(H1N1) that can be used to make vaccines. Novartis said it would use the first 2.6-gallon (10-liter) batch of vaccine for laboratory testing. It may also be tested in humans, the company said. The vaccine was produced at a Novartis plant in Marburg, Germany.
