Tamiflu

The Department of Health and Human Services is expected to release new details of the administration's plans to respond to the threat of an H5N1 epidemic. HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt returned from a fact-finding trip to Asia on Friday alarmed by the facts that he found. All signs point to a containment strategy, with officials hoping to catch any outbreak on the ground in Asia before it spreads by encouraging local governments to increase transparency and step up efforts to inoculate local …

Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche is reporting that its third-quarter sales are up 20 percent, led by demand for its popular cancer drugs and a doubling of sales for the flu drug Tamiflu. The company reported increased sales of Avastin and Herceptin, both developed by majority-owned Genentech. There may be a speed bump in the road ahead, however. Roche faces controversy over its handling of the unprecedented demand for Tamiflu. Some critics say the company is putting profits ahead of the …

> With governments worried about H5N1 and threatening to break the drug's patent, Roche says it is willing to license Tamiflu to other companies. The company also announced a new US production facility. Article

> Varian Medical Systems, a maker of x-rays and cancer treatments, announced new products, including Aria, a new oncology information management system. …

Faced with growing pressure from the US and other governments, Swiss drug maker Roche said it is willing to discuss allowing other companies to produce its antiviral drug Tamiflu, which is believed to be the most effective weapon in the fight against avian flu. The company has qualified that offer by saying it doesn't think anybody else has the capability to produce the drug. Roche shares have hit all-time highs in recent weeks driven by the demand for Tamiflu and the excellent …

The potential for an avian flu pandemic remains a major national story. President Bush today meets with pharma company representatives to discuss ways to increase production. Unconfirmed reports suggest the administration is making plans to raise the nation's stockpile of Tamiflu from 12 million doses to 81 million doses. Critics say the move comes too late as other countries have already placed major orders with Roche, the antiviral's manufacturer. According to some estimates, the …

The Department of Health and Human Services is making preparations to fight a potential outbreak of pandemic influenza. On Wednesday, HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said the administration will ask Congress for between $6 billion and $10 billion to bolster vaccine production in the US and develop adequate stockpiles of antiviral drugs. In the short term, the development is good news for Sanofi-Aventis, which announced a successful clinical trial of an experimental vaccine in August. It is …

> Drug company representatives and government officials meet in Washington this week to discuss ways in which erectile dysfunction drugs may be contributing to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Story

> A 27-year-old Jakarta woman died this morning, becoming the sixth victim of Indonesia's H5N1 outbreak. 400,000 doses of Tamiflu arrived in the country today. …

The Indonesian government is predicting that an outbreak of H5N1 virus could evolve into an epidemic. The country's health minister said that two children, ages 5 and 2, died of the disease at a Jakarta hospital. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono says his government will take all necessary measures to contain the disease. Critics however, note the country's slow response to last year's tsunamis which killed over 200,000 people, as a possible warning sign that the local response may not …

Researchers in Asia published a paper which criticizes western governments for not sharing access to drugs which can guard against the avian flu and said that the drug Zanamavir should be stockpiled in case of a possible pandemic. Writing in the Lancet, the group argues that experts have been overly conservative in ruling out the antiviral Zanamavir, which is marketed by GlaxoSmithKline as Relenza. Until now, most experts have argued that Oseltamivir, sold by Roche as Tamiflu, is …

Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said his agency is considering a plan which would deliver vaccines to Americans through the postal service or at distribution points such as firehouses, in the event of a major flu outbreak or bioterrorist attack. Leavitt also noted his agency plans to purchase 20 million doses of tamiflu to guard against a possible outbreak of avian flu and a further 20 million doses of a vaccine when it becomes available. Leavitt said the agency hopes to …