Reuters reports:
LONDON (Reuters) – Indonesia has stopped sharing human genetic samples of the most deadly strain of bird flu with foreign laboratories to protect its intellectual property rights ahead of a planned vaccine tie-up with Baxter International, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
The country — the worst affected by bird flu — stopped providing samples last month, according to the newspaper.
Dr Triono Soendoro, director general of Indonesia’s National Institute of Health Research and Development, was quoted in the FT as saying the step was taken because Jakarta wanted to retain control of the intellectual property rights of the H5N1 strain.
He said “all will be revealed” on Wednesday when Indonesian officials were due to announce they were collaborating on a vaccine with Baxter, the U.S. medical products maker, the FT reported.
Baxter confirmed it expected to conclude a “framework for future collaboration” with Indonesia this week, but said it would still abide by World Health Organisation rules on sharing virus samples, the newspaper added.
The H5N1 virus has spread into the Middle East, Africa and Europe since it re-emerged in Asia in 2003 and outbreaks have now been detected in birds in around 50 countries.
It remains largely an animal disease, but can kill people who come into close contact with infected birds. It has killed 166 people over the past four years, including 63 in Indonesia.
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