December 9, 2005

Roche agrees on generic Tamiflu production with 15 companies

Roche has reached agreements with two US generic drugmakers Teva Pharmaceuticals and Mylan Laboratories, as well as 13 other drug producers to make more of Tamiflu, US Senator Charles Schumer said Dec 8.

The agreements will allow more production of the drug generically known as oseltamivir, said Schumer.

However, there are no further details of the licence agreements.

The drug, invented by California-based Gilead Sciences, is in short supply. Roche maintains that Tamiflu is hard to produce, taking about a year since it requires a chain of different processes, some of which are difficult.

GlaxoSmithKline also makes a drug is similar to Tamiflu, called Relenza. However, it is also in short supply.