Roche donates bird flu drug stockpile to WHO

SWITZERLAND - Drug maker Roche handed over 3 million courses of bird flu treatment Tamiflu to the World Health Organisation today to be deployed in the event of a pandemic.

The donation of the treatment is part of Roche's efforts to help the world health body prepare developing countries for a potential global human epidemic of the virulent H5N1 strain of influenza.

Chief executive Franz Humer said Roche was on track to produce 400 million courses of Tamiflu this year to meet demand from governments who are building stockpiles of the drug.

The donation -- and a decision to grant production sublicenses in China and India -- follows criticism that only rich nations had the resources to prepare for a flu pandemic which could occur if the current bird flu strain mutates.

"During discussions it emerged very clearly that many governments in Asia Pacific, where the first outbreak could happen, were not prepared," Humer told reporters at a news conference to mark the handover near Basel.

The 3 million course stockpile will be stored by Roche, partly at Kaiseraugst and partly in the United States, and would be sent to an international airport close to the outbreak if a human pandemic develops.

Roche has promised the WHO a further 2 million courses of the drug to be sent to build strategic stockpiles in regions where outbreaks are thought to be most likely.

The moves are part of the WHO's efforts to create a global preparedness plan, and the 3 million courses are seen as an initial defence that could quell an outbreak.

"The timing will be everything and containment has a chance to work if antivirals reach the area rapidly and no more than 21 days after the first case," WHO Director-General Lee Jong-wook told the news conference.

"We can't afford to fail."

The H5N1 avian flu virus has spread quickly in recent weeks, and is now reported in 42 countries across Asia, Europe and parts of Africa.

It has killed 110 people and infected 196, although it does not pass easily from human to human. If it acquires this ability it could easily cause a pandemic although if caught early enough in theory such outbreaks could be contained with the use of drugs such as Tamiflu.

Tamiflu, known generically as oseltamivir, has been used successfully in some patients who have been given the drug soon enough after they become ill.

Roche expects to generate up to 1.2 billion Swiss francs ($1.5 billion) in sales of Tamiflu in 2006 to governments around the world.

Tamiflu, discovered by the US firm Gilead, is one of two antiviral drugs recommended by the WHO as the best defence against a severe flu pandemic. The drug is already sold on prescription as a treatment for conventional influenza.

GlaxoSmithKline's inhaled antiviral Relenza is the other recommended drug for influenza.

Australia's Biota Holdings Ltd, which developed Relenza and licenses it to Glaxo, said on Wednesday that the US Department of Defence had ordered more than US$5 million worth of the drug.

Biota said the Australian, French and German governments are also stockpiling Relenza in case of an outbreak of avian flu.

- REUTERS