Roche suspends Tamiflu shipments to US

Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche Holding said it has suspended shipments of Tamiflu to pharmacy benefit management companies and other wholesale distributors after receiving reports of distribution problems. A Roche spokesman told The New York Times that some companies have been building stockpiles of the antiviral to guard against a possible H5N1 outbreak but did not provide more specifics. The company said shipments will resume when flu season begins in earnest. For those keeping score, sales of Tamiflu are up more than tenfold since last year.

- read this article from The New York Times

PLUS: Vietnam, a country believed to be particularly at risk from H5N1, became the latest country to threaten to break the drug's patent. Article