TAIPEI: Adimmune Corp, the sole H1N1 flu vaccine producer in Taiwan, filed a defamation lawsuit yesterday against a critic who branded its vaccines unsafe.

In a move to defend its reputation, Adimmune's Vice President Simon Kao filed the suit with the Taipei District Court, requesting an apology and damage of NT$3 million from the critic, identified as Chun-hsu James Chen.

Kao told journalists outside the court that Chen tarnished his company's image by claiming in his blog and in interviews with cable television stations that Adimmune's flu vaccine contains 50 times more organic mercury - a chemical ingredient used to inhibit bacterial growth - than similar vaccines produced overseas, and that it also contains formalin,a compound used to inactivate vaccine viruses, which, Chen, according to Kao, said should not be present.

"A majority of H1N1 flu vaccines in the world use formalin to render viruses inactive, and use organic mercury to inhibit the growth of bacteria," Kao said.

"The traces of the two chemicals in Adimmune's H1N1 vaccine are within the international limits and are harmless to people," he said.

An advertisement placed by Adimmune with several local newspapers yesterday said that its brand of vaccine contains 0.01 percent of organic mercury, which is similar to the H1N1 vaccine produced by Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. The Novartis vaccine is also available on Taiwan's market.

In addition to filing the lawsuit, a lawyer for the corporation threatened to sue anyone who defames the vaccine with groundless claims.

The corporation's arguments were supported by the Department of Health (DOH).

An official from the DOH's Food and Drug Administration said organic mercury has been used widely in vaccines as a preservative since 1930.

However, it is not natural mercury and would neither accumulate in human bodies nor do any harm to people, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Noting that mercury was also used in vaccines for Japanese encephalitis, the combined vaccine for diptheria, tetanus and pertussis, and other flu vaccines, the official cited several US medical groups' reports as saying that there is no evidence it is harmful to people.

Chen, who claimed in his blog that he is a graduate from Bastyr University in Seattle, Washington and a qualified US naturopathic physician, could not be reached for comment.

Adimmune took the legal action as local skeptics raised questions about the safety of its vaccine amid an increasing number of cases of people in Taiwan falling ill or dying after being vaccinated.

Critics, including politicians and television pundits, have warned the general public not to take Adimmune's vaccine, which dealt a blow to the health authorities' efforts to have at least half of Taiwan's population vaccinated against the new flu.

None of the cases of deaths and illnesses that followed the vaccinations have been found to be caused by the vaccine.

Government Information Office chief Su Jun-pin said yesterday that about 24 percent of the island's 23 million people have been vaccinated so far.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 01/15/2010 page2)