December 1, 2005

Roche negotiates Tamiflu production with Shanghai Pharmaceutical

Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche and the Shanghai Pharmaceutical Group are negotiating the production of Tamiflu in China through technology transfer, revealed the country's Minister of Health Gao Qiang in Beijing press conference on Nov 30.

Gao also revealed during the event that the Chinese government is improving its bird flu pandemic emergency plan, such as on the research and development of bird flu vaccines for humans and other drugs.

As it is, China's own human bird flu vaccine is currently undergoing clinical tests.

An antiviral drug, Tamiflu does not cure human bird flu but can reduce its severity and might slow the spread of a human pandemic.