Vaccine to combat HFMD strain to be in market soon?

With Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD) hitting epidemic levels here, a vaccine against the virulent EV71 strain of the disease took a step closer to the market yesterday.

The INV21 vaccine could be the world's first - provided its developer Inviragen pips pharmaceutical companies in other parts of the world in rolling out a vaccine against a disease that Asian countries are increasingly grappling with.

The vaccine could be available in the market in 2015, Inviragen's chief operating officer Joseph Santangelo said.

HFMD cases typically peak around March and taper off around December. But this year has seen higher HFMD numbers since January.

And since breaching the epidemic level of 780 cases in the week of Feb 12 to 18 - when there were 815 cases - the number of HFMD cases has continued to surge.

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