Roche announces Tamiflu response ready

Roche, the Swiss-based pharmaceutical and diagnostics company, has said that the stockpile of Tamiflu for the World Health Organisation (WHO) is ready.

The company has said that three million treatments are available as part of the rapid response stockpile that will combat an influenza pandemic, should one occur.

Roche and the WHO hope that the three million vaccines, stored in the US and in Switzerland, will mean that a potentially novel strain of influenza can be contained and controlled wherever in the world it emerges.

The company has also announced that a further two million vaccines have been made available for the WHO for use in developing countries where avian influenza is perceived as a particular threat.

Roche has revealed that its capacity for producing the Tamiflu vaccine is now up to 400 million annually following the speeding up of the process.

Agreements with companies in China and India to produce oseltamivir, the ingredient behind the brand name Tamiflu, have also been signed.

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