Oseltamivir (Tamiflu) may not cure H1N1 swine flu complications: Report

Oseltamivir (Tamiflu), the widely marketed treatment against H1N1 swine flu by Roche, cannot cut down complications related to flu, reports said quoting medical experts.

Roche, which expects a windfall sales to reach upto 2.7 billion Swiss francs with Tamiflu since the outbreak of H1N1 swine flu, has been maintaining that oseltamivir could help prevent complications related to flu such as pneumonia.

Medical experts from Bond University in Australia, after analyzing nearly 20 studies, have found that there was no clear evidence Tamiflu prevents complications such as pneumonia in people with flu. There was no sufficient data available to know if Tamiflu can cut complications associated with H1N1 swine flu.

Tamiflu, which Roche manufactures under licence from Gilead Sciences, is used by around 68 million people worldwide.

Oseltamivir (Tamiflu) has become one of most sought after remedy since the outbreak of H1N1 swine flu this year. Several countries across the world have been placing bulk orders to stockpile the drug in case of emergency outbreaks.

Indian government initaited a major boost to its oseltamivir stock pile in September by buying another 20 million doses of oseltamivir for its 10 million dosage reserve..

The government asked the domestic companies like Ranbaxy Labs, Cipla, Natco Pharma, Strides Arcolab, Hetero Drugs and Roche India to be ready to supply for an order of 20 million capsules at short notice.

On September 1, Daiichi Ranbaxy Laboratories got orders from the Centre to supply 900,000 doses of oseltamivir- the generic version of Roche’s anti-viral Tamiflu – used to treat the H1N1 flu, a Ranbaxy spokesman said.

Bangalore-based Strides Arcolab also bagged a contract order from the Ministry of Health, Government of India for supply of 7.40 lakh doses of oseltamivir capsules, a day ago to tackle the emergency situation arising out of H1N1 pandemic outbreak in the country, as part of its second round of oseltmavir procurement to bolster the drug stockpile. (See related story)

Earlier, India government had procured around 9 million doses of oseltamivir from Hetero Drugs, the only domestic company that has a manufacturing agreement with Roche to make the low cost version of the patented version.

The health ministry also gave order to Roche for another one million doses of oseltamivir to complete its 10 million doses drug reserve.