Tamiflu To Companies Criticised

Those of you that read the Ukmedix news on a regular basis will know that our newsroom were quick to pick up on the fact that Roche (the maker of the flu anti viral Tamiflu) were marketing the drug directly to companies. This has met with a round of dissaproval from a number of medical organisations such as the California Medical Association and others who say that the companies were being given preference over national governments who were still waiting for their own stockpiles of the Tamiflu drug.

Roche last week explained that nearly 60 companies had specifically ordered Tamiflu for their employees and some had ordered very large quantities of up to hundreds of thousands Tamiflu courses. The criticism is mainly that national governments should be the first to get supplies of Tamiflu and until all those orders are used up then individual companies should not be getting supplies.

A trustee from the California Medical Association said that he beived that it was irresponsible for Roche to sell the drug Tamiflu to companies when the demand still outstripped the supply. Other people were of the opinion that Roche were deliberately encouraging orders from companies because they could and would pay more for the Tamiflu drug.  In fact the numbers show that companies get the Tamiflu for 61dollars for a treatment course containing ten pills whereas rich countries pay 19dollars for the Tamiflu and poorer nations pay a little less.

Roche replied to the criticism saying that the company has increased the supply of the drug very quickly so that by 2008 there will be enough of the Tamiflu drug for all people and nations who require it. Roche said that they have done special contracts with 15 drug makers to increase the production process of Tamiflu and that this will mean that there will be 400 million treatment courses available at the end of 2006.