Roche looking to step up Tamiflu output
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Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG has given assurances it is talking to other firms to raise output of its Tamiflu, seen as the most effective anti-viral drug currently available for bird flu, an EU spokesman said on Thursday.
However Roche Chief Executive Franz Humer and EU Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou agreed during talks that the process of ensuring that all EU states had sufficient quantities of the treatment was a gradual one, he added.
“...Patents will not stand in the way of Roche making licence agreements with other companies to increase production capacity and they are talking to other companies to that effect,” European Commission health spokesman Philip Tod told a regular news briefing.
“Clearly this is a gradual process that will take time and they both understand that,” he added.
Tod said 20 out of the European Union’s 25 member state governments had informed the Commission either of their existing stock levels of the drug, or their plans to create a stockpile.
He added the EU executive was encouraging the remaining five states also to come forward with information. He declined to name them.
Tamiflu, known generically as oseltamivir, is one of a class of antiviral drugs known as neuraminidase inhibitors recommended by the World Health Organisation for stockpiling in preparation for a feared bird flu pandemic.
An inhalable drug in the same class, known as zanamivir, is produced by GlaxoSmithKline under the brand name Relenza.
Tamiflu and Relenza do not “cure” a flu infection but if taken when a person knows he or she has been exposed to flu, they can prevent illness from developing. No one knows how effective either drug will be against H5N1 although laboratory tests suggest that if taken in higher doses, Tamiflu should have some effect.
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