Word: tamiflu
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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...
...Roche refuses to disclose how much of the drug it makes. But "the actual amount of Tamiflu [Roche] could deliver over the next five years will be very small," notes Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. The U.S. currently has enough Tamiflu stockpiled to treat 2.3 million people. Roche spokesman Terence Hurley says that by the end of this year the Department of Health and Human Services should have in stock enough Tamiflu to treat 4.3 million people. But HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt would like to have enough...
...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...
Antiviral medications like oseltamivir (Tamiflu) have shown promise in tests but must be taken within 48 hours of the first symptoms' appearance--requiring a very swift diagnosis. More in-depth study is needed to assess how well those drugs would work against a pandemic--something that's tough to do with so few patients and viral samples...
When the Senate voted last week to add $4 billion to a defense-spending bill to prepare for a bird-flu epidemic, three-fourths of the money was earmarked for Tamiflu and other antiviral medications. But a dilemma looms. It's difficult to predict when--or if--the current strain of the virus, which is known to have killed just 60 people worldwide, will mutate into something more easily spread among humans. Makers of flu vaccines can't simultaneously produce both bird-flu and regular-flu varieties in sufficient quantity. Shift gears too early, and it could be a false...