Roche Gives Tamiflu Treatments
to WHO for Bird Flu
19 April, 2006
Roche Holding AG today handed over enough Tamiflu
influenza medication to the World Health Organization to
treat 3 million people in a rapid response to a potential bird flu
outbreak.
The donation is part of the Basel, Switzerland-based
drugmaker's pledge to give the WHO access to medicine for more than
5 million people. The remaining 2 million courses of treatment are
earmarked for averting an avian influenza
pandemic in developing countries. A course of treatment is 10 tablets.
``Working together with public organizations, industry
can play a very important part in hopefully combating and containing
a potential outbreak,'' Chief Executive Officer Franz Humer said
at a press conference today.
Medicines such as Tamiflu and GlaxoSmithKline Plc's
Relenza may slow the spread of
avian influenza, which has killed at least 109 of 194 people infected
since late 2003, when used quickly after an outbreak is detected.
The disease in birds creates more opportunity for human infection
and increases the risk of the virus changing into a pandemic form.
``The risk of a pandemic continues as the virus
spreads, and we continue to see outbreaks in birds,'' Lee Jong-wook,
director general of the Geneva-based WHO, told reporters. ``The
longer this virus is widespread in poultry, the greater the chances
that it changes to a type that's easily spread from person to person.''
