The United States Department of Health and Human Services has recently annouced the details of a contract that it has given to the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche which is worth nearly 150 million dollars. The two year contract is to provide the bird flu drug Tamiflu to 50 US states and other territories and is a section of the American government's overall plan for the stockpiling of the Tamiflu drug for use should a bird flu pandemic break out in the country.

The details contract stipulates that 59 individual jurisdictions will be allowed to buy the Tamiflu drug at specially negotiated rates and they will also get a 25% federal subsidy for some of the prescribed Tamiflu courses. The overall plan is that there will be enough Tamiflu to treat 25% of the United States population and the idae of letting each US state administer its own supply of the Tamiflu drug is to ensure faster and more efficient distribution of the bird flu drug when a pandemic hits America.

The United States government has at present 44 million Tamiflu courses and the new contract will enable the number to rise to 75 million courses. The United States came under a lot of criticism for not being prepared for a bird flu pandemic and has been fast catching up for lost time recently. State officials have been conducting influenza pandemic summits all over the country and have been giving out information and advice about what to do when people start to get infected.

Tamiflu is thought to be the best and most effective treatment for bird flu in humans and the WHO recommends that governments have sufficient supplies of the drug stockpiled for safety.