NEW YORK (AP) — Chinese biopharmaceutical Sinovac Biotech Ltd. shares hit a record high on Monday after the company said experts from China’s drug regulator had approved its swine flu vaccine, and it expected to get a production license within one week. Shares of Sinovac jumped $1.53, or 24 percent, to $7.85 in morning trading. They peaked earlier at $7.94, their highest since trading as a public company began in 2003, on more than ten times normal volume. The company said an experts evaluation by the State Food and Drug Administration, China’s food and drug regulator, had unanimously passed its swine flu vaccine. Sinovac expects to get a production license this week after the panel submits its approval to the SFDA. Sinovac earlier this month completed a clinical trial of its swine flu vaccine, which the company said showed “good immunogenicity,” meaning it is capable of provoking an immune system response to swine flu, in a single shot. Sinovac said then it was the first company in the world to complete testing of a vaccine for the flu strain. Sinovac is known in China as Beijing Kexing Bioproducts, and specializes in developing vaccines for infectious diseases such as hepatitis A and B, influenza and SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome.
