Originally published October 25 2005
Taiwan will proceed with manufacturing generic bird flu anti-viral drug
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
The Taiwanese National Health Research Institute showed media a generic form of Tamiflu produced by its labs, and Taiwan will continue manufacturing the drug, ignoring patent issues with Tamiflu's maker.
Taiwan is ready to produce its own Tamiflu, the antiviral avian flu drug, and will not let patent talks with Swiss drug maker Roche AG stand in the way, officials said.
The island's National Health Research Institute showed media late on Friday a generic version of Tamiflu produced by its laboratories, which it said was 99 percent similar to Roche's drug.
The Taiwan government was among the first in the world to seek permission from Roche to make Tamiflu, but it has yet to receive an authorisation.
But to protect our people is the utmost important thing," said Su, a former chief of the Center for Disease Control.
Taiwan has so far been spared a serious outbreak of the H5N1 virus lethal to humans, but authorities found rare birds infected with the strain in a container smuggled from China on Thursday, the island's first case since late 2003.
All the birds were destroyed, and officials said there was little danger of the virus infecting local birds and spreading.
Wu said his research team had successfully duplicated 20 grams of Tamiflu in 18 days and would help local drug companies to mass produce the drug, which is considered the first line of defense against H5N1.
Taiwan plans to produce one to two million courses of Tamiflu for domestic use by January to March next year and has no plan to export the drug to other countries, Wu said.
The island is confident it will make Tamiflu faster and cheaper.
One million courses of locally made Tamiflu cost about T$200 million (US$5.9 million), compared with T$1 billion if purchased from Roche, Su said, adding it takes about 3 months to make one million courses.
The Taiwan government has said it is building up stockpiles of Tamiflu and aims to have enough to treat 4 percent of its 23 million people by mid-2006.
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