Word: flu
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...after Roche reversed course under pressure and announced it is willing to enter discussions with countries and companies interested in licensing rights to produce its flu drug Tamiflu came the reminder of why the Swiss pharmaceutical giant had for so long been so reluctant to make the move. Roche announced Wednesday that its revenues climbed 17% in the third quarter, boosted in large part by world-wide demand for Tamiflu. Sales of the drug more than doubled, to $215 million in the quarter. Roche expects to rake in as much as $925 million from Tamiflu sales this year, up from...
...fuss, Tamiflu is far from a guarantee against disaster. "It may well be of great benefit to people who can get it while they're ill," says Osterholm, pointing out that it works relatively well in treating current flu infections, but adding that it's unclear how effective the drug would be against the H5N1 virus and at what dosage it might work best. And there's a separate, troubling development: the emergence of a case in Vietnam that appears resistant to the drug. Still, Osterholm believes that stockpiles of Tamiflu, being a valuable treatment tool and, unlike a vaccine...
...University health officials inoculate members of the Harvard community against the flu this month, they say they’re not expecting to encounter vaccine shortages as severe as last fall’s. Still, the University has taken measures to limit distribution of the vaccine until more is available. Enough of the flu vaccine will be available to inoculate about 71 million people nationwide, according manufacturers cited in The New York Times. While this is fewer than the usual 80 million doses available, it’s an improvement from last year, when only 61 million inoculations could...
True, the Senate has approved $3.9 billion in spending to increase “preparedness” for a flu outbreak, but this is about half the amount spent on the conflict in Iraq in a single month. Last Friday, the White House invited vaccine makers to discuss increased production of flu vaccines, such as Tamiflu—a medicine whose “effectiveness in humans is unknown.” Worse, Secretary of Health and Human Services Micheal O. Leavitt has stated that “no one in the world is ready,” making these...
What we need now is not power-grabbing, but leadership. Funding must be increased sharply to biomedical research institutions to produce effective vaccines. The federal government must ensure that local, state, and national emergency services can communicate and coordinate successfully during a crippling flu outbreak. The threat of flu demands attention, even at the cost of reversing tax cuts and reducing spending in Iraq...