Business

Tuesday April 28, 2009

Roche scales up production of flu cure


ZURICH: Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG is working on scaling up production of Tamiflu, a drug which has been shown to work against the new flu strain that has killed 103 people in Mexico, sparking fears of a pandemic.

“We are in the process of reinstating our activities and checking all the processes to see how we can scale up,” a company spokeswoman said, but cautioned that the production lead time for the drug from synthesis of the product to packaging was eight months.

“We’ve always made it clear that this cannot happen overnight which is why it is so important that countries are prepared before the pandemic breaks out.”

“We have a limited supply at our manufacturing sites to resupply seasonal stocks,” she added.

The World Health Organisation has not yet asked Roche to deploy 3 million treatment courses it has as a “fire blanket” to use wherever a pandemic breaks out, she said.

The WHO also has an additional 2 million packs that Roche donated in the past for use in countries which are not so well prepared for a pandemic, the spokeswoman said.

Roche shares were up 3.9% at 145 Swiss francs at 0742 GMT, when the DJ Stoxx European pharmaceuticals sector index was up 1.1%.

Tamiflu, or oseltamivir, is given as a convenient tablet, and was originally invented by US biotech company Gilead Sciences Inc. — Reuters


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