December 8, 2005

Indonesia seeks copyright for bird flu vaccines developed locally

Indonesia is seeking copyright protection for any bird flu vaccine developed by a locally based US Naval laboratory, officials said Wednesday.

A contract for the NAMRU-2 medical unit expires Dec 31 and will only be extended if an agreement can be reached that is beneficial to Indonesia, said Foreign Ministry official Arif Havas Oegroseno.

That would include a guarantee that the government would be rewarded financially if a bird flu vaccine was developed using Indonesian strains of the virus.

Such a deal could generate "billions and billions of dollars," Oegroseno noted.

US Embassy spokesman Max Kwak said he was aware of the proposal but that he could not comment.

The NAMRU-2 laboratory was set up in 1970 to investigate infectious diseases of importance for the US Navy and the rest of the Department of Defense.

In recent months it has been used for initial analysis of samples drawn from suspected bird flu patients in Indonesia.

The H5N1 bird flu virus has ravaged poultry stocks across Asia since 2003 and has killed at least 69 - eight of them in Indonesia.