When asked about human trials, he said the health ministry has already notified health centres about this and all interested parties were welcome.

'After the animal trials at the above three companies, the vaccine will go for human trials. May be by November we will do some human trials.'

'Before allowing any one we will verify his clinical trial credentials, past history and efficiency. There is a modern guideline for this and clinical trial centres have to follow the official protocol,' the secretary told IANS.

He also said human trials will be conducted in multiple centres. 'Some may be outside India too.'

Katoch, a leading health scientist, said interested parties need to give a brief description of interest, experience, expertise and infrastructure available for conducting Phase-I and or Phase II multi-centre clinical trials.

He said India is ready for 'fast track approval' of the vaccine as it generally takes a lot of time to develop a medicine or vaccine. He also clarified that quality shall not be compromised and all 'safety measures' shall be taken care of.

The country has reported four H1N1 deaths so far. As on July 31, the World Health Organization has reported 162,380 laboratory confirmed cases of influenza A (H1N1) and 1,154 deaths in over 150 countries.

(Prashant K. Nanda can be contacted at prashant.n@ians.in)