October 25, 2005

 

Taiwan not producing Tamiflu just yet
 

 

A Taiwanese official said Monday the island has no plans to begin mass production of the anti-influenza drug Tamiflu, because it has not yet received permission from Swiss patent holder Roche.

 

"Taiwan has not yet received permission to go into mass production (of Tamiflu)," said Li Jih-heng of the Department of Health. "So we need further negotiations with (Roche)."

 

Last Wednesday, Taiwanese officials said they hoped to get a licence from Roche to manufacture a generic version of Tamiflu to prepare the island for a possible bird flu outbreak.

 

A press tour to a laboratory producing the drug fuelled speculation that mass production was about to begin.

 

Taiwan's first case of the H5N1 virus, the lethal flu sweeping over Asia, was confirmed last Thursday.

 

It involved birds taken from a Panama-registered freighter that was stopped by the Taiwanese coast guard on Oct 14.

 

At a Taipei press conference Monday, Health Ministry officials displayed a letter from Roche saying it was willing to negotiate terms for Tamiflu manufacture with countries or companies able to produce large amounts of the drug.

 

"Roche is willing to enter into discussions with any party who is able to fully or partially produce substantial quantities of Tamiflu, for emergency pandemic use, within a specified timeline, and in accordance with appropriate quality specifications, safety and regulatory guidelines," the letter said.

 

Taiwan's state-funded National Health Research Institutes said last month it was able to make Tamiflu. Officials have said Taiwan would declare an emergency in the case of a bird flu outbreak, allowing it to produce the drug without a licence under WTO guidelines.

 

Roche has said that making Tamiflu involves a very complex process and that a company given a licence to make a generic copy would need at least two to three years to ramp up production.