Swiss drug maker Roche said Wednesday that it has completed a stockpile
of three million courses of the antiviral drug Tamifluthat it's donating to the World Health Organization (WHO).
This "Rapid Response Stockpile" is now ready to be flown
to the site of any future major influenza
outbreak.
"The idea of such stock is to use the medicine as a fire blanket,
to contain a pandemic where it starts," and slow or prevent
the spread of influenza within an affected country or to other nations,
Roche said.
Tamiflu is regarded as a frontline drug in dealing with a possible
human flu pandemic caused by bird
flu.
Roche has another agreement to donate two million more courses of
Tamiflu to the WHO for use in developing countries. Those will be
available for delivery by the end of the year, AFP reported.
