Egypt has been widely praised for its stering efforts in containing the cases of bird flu it has had in not only the birds but in the few human cases too. The Ministry of Health and Population in Egypt was fully prepared for every eventuality and is still prepared for another outbreak should one occur.

The country has also been busy negotiating with the Swiss drug manufacturer Roche so that it can get a licence to make a generic type of Tamiflu. The demand for Tamiflu eaasily outstrips supply and Roche has made aggrements with a number of drug companies worldwide to boost supply. If a bird flu pandemic were to hit the world Tamiflu will be especially important as it is the only drug treatment recommended to beat bird flu symptoms by the World Health Organisation.

The company that will be making thegeneic version of Tamiflu is called Nile Pharmaceuticals and is a subsidiary company of Pharmaceuticals Industries Holding Company. The preparations for the manufacture of the Tamiflu drug are underway and the generic version is going to be called Taminil. It is hoped that by November of 2006 the drug will be on sale in Eygpt.

Taminil will contain the all important compound found in Tamiflu namely Oseltamivir and this will be sent to Eygpt by the patent holder Roche and by manufacturing the drug like this the Egyptain government will save alot of money compared to having to import Tamiflu.

The bird flu threat is very real and a recent report released by the WHO noted that 217 cases of bird flu in humans have been recorded in ten different nations since the first case in 2003. More than 50% of the people who got it sucumbed to the disease.