Update On Vietnam Tamiflu Plans

The star anise has purple flowers and scented fruit on it...

At Ukmedix News we recently reported that the Vietnamese government was trying to reuse their vast stores of the flu drug Tamiflu that were fast approaching their expiring date. The idea was that Vietnamese scientists would somehow be able to make sure that the flu drug stayed effective and so that the government would not have to allocate millions of pounds replenishing their supplies.

We now know at Ukmedix News exactly what the Vietnamese scientists are trying to do with the expiring Tamiflu. They are trying to extract all of the active ingredient called oseltamivir phosphate and to reprocess it in a fresh form. If they can do this they will save the nation millions of pounds.

According to industry insiders while this process can be expensive it will nevertheless be cheaper then re-buying new Tamiflu. One of the reasons why Tamiflu is so pricey is that it is a very complicated drug to make and the active ingredient comes from a rare tree that is only found in parts of Asia. The tree is called the star anise which has purple flowers and scented fruit on it and even when you have located the tree it is still difficult to isolate the Shikimic acid that is used to make the oseltamivir phosphate.

Vietnam has been one of the hardest hit nations from the H5N1 bird flu virus and over 40 people have died from the flu disease. In all nearly 100 people have caught the bird flu virus in Vietnam and all of them were treated with Tamiflu. With the use of the Tamiflu drug it is essential that patients receive it within 48 hours of coming down with the symptoms of the flu for it to be very effective.

Vietnam already produces Tamiflu in the country having signed an agreement with the patent holder of Tamiflu namely Roche. Nevertheless it is still expensive for them to produce the medicine locally and recycling their existing stocks should be cheaper.