Wednesday was a big day in the country's pharmaceutical history when the first indigenous intra-nasal vaccine was launched in Mumbai. Its Pune-based makers insisted that a dose of 0.5ml of the vaccine Nasovac — delivered directly to the nasal cavity — would guard the person against the worrisome H1N1 virus for a period of over a year or even two.

But the painless vaccine may be of no use to the sections who are most vulnerable to the H1N1 virus, namely pregnant women, infants and people with compromised immunity who are the worst affected. "The nasal vaccine is safe and easy to administer and meant for children over three years of age as well as for the elderly," said Serum Institute of India executive director (operations) Adar C Poonawalla at Wednesday's launch.

Swine flu has killed over 1,000 people across the country since its entry in May 2009. It was almost inactive in the summer months before returning a month ago, killing 19 people. It remains to be seen whether the Rs-160-for-a-shot nasal vaccine will be widely used or stay in the cold storage like its conventional counterpart — the injectable swine flu vaccine that was introduced in the market over two months ago.

Nasovac is the culmination of long R&D work for Indian scientists. After getting the ‘donor virus' from WHO, they have worked on creating the vaccine. "We have conducted clinical trials on 380 people, including children, the young and the elderly, and found it to be safe, without major side effects and efficacious," said the company's medical director Prasad Kulkarni.

Dr Abhay Chaudhari, director of Haffkine Institute, said live attenuated vaccine would need a smaller dose than the inactivated vaccine. "Moreover, it seems more like a nebulizer and not like a painful vaccine jab that people are used to," said Dr Chaudhari. But will Indians take to the easy vaccine? He is not so sure. For one, India doesn't have the habit of using flu vaccines. "Secondly, unlike the West which is exposed to flu viruses, we living in the tropics are exposed to many viruses that cause similar respiratory symptoms. So, Indians are known to have better immunological reaction than westerners," he said.

But Dr D S Dakhure, Maharashtra DG, health services, maintained the injectable vaccine's introduction wouldn't change the state's stance. "We can only offer the injectable vaccine to our staff as per the WHO recommendation," he said. The healthcare personnel for whom the union government had sent advance vaccines have so far desisted from vaccination.

Dr Sanjay Oak, dean of KEM Hospital, said given the availability of various vaccines in the Indian market it is time the Union government issued a health advisory to the public at large on which method of vaccination to adopt. "This is the same situation like last year when a debate was raging over the controlled disbursement of Tamiflu through government centres only," he said.

Serum is also in the process of developing another anti-swine flu vaccine meant specifically for children below three Poonawalla added that the new product was expected to hit the market in the next 2-3 months.