Roche Pharmaceuticals Tamiflu® capsule and packaging

Roche Pharmaceuticals, based in Nutley, New Jersey, makes the anti-viral drug Tamiflu®. This drug may prove to be the best available defense against the threat of a global avian flu pandemic capable of killing tens of millions of people.

In order to get the latest and most up-to-date information about this product, Etopia Media Medical News Network submitted a list of questions about Tamiflu® to Roche Pharmaceuticals.

Roche Pharmaceuticals sent its answers to these questions to Etopia Media Medical News Network today.

You can read Etopia Media Medical News Network's questions and Roche Pharmaceutical's answers to these questions below:

1. How do anti-virals such as Tamiflu work against viral infection, as compared to the way vaccines protect people?

-- Tamiflu targets one of the two major surface structures of the influenza virus, the neuraminidase protein. The neuraminidase site is virtually the same in the most common strains of influenza, types A and B. Tamiflu attacks the influenza virus and is thought to work by stopping it from spreading inside the body. Tamiflu treats flu at is source, by attacking the virus that causes the flu, rather than simply masking symptoms.

2. Are anti-virals useful "perennially," against any type of influenza?

-- Yes. Tamiflu is the only prescription antiviral medication indicated to treat type A and type B influenza in patients one year and older. 

3. How widely-used is Tamiflu now?

-- Tamiflu is the leader in the antiviral marketplace. It captured more than 60 percent of the overall influenza antiviral market last flu season.

4. Is it useful as a preventative measure against influenza or does a person need to be infected before it becomes useful?

-- For prevention, Tamiflu should be taken once daily for at least seven days. Safety and efficacy have been demonstrated for up to six weeks. The duration of protection lasts for as long as dosing is continued. 

5. What's happening on the national and international public health front about ramping up production and/or stockpiling Tamiflu against the threat of an avian flu pandemic?

-- Roche has been ramping up production since early last year. Roche has doubled production capacity in 2004 and plans to double capacity again in 2005. Tamiflu is currently made in Switzerland, but Roche is bringing manufacturing capacity to the U.S. and hopes to begin production in the fall of this year. Combining the existing global and new U.S. supply chain means Tamiflu capsule capacity will be significant in 2006 and beyond. A number of countries are beginning to stockpile Tamiflu as part of their pandemic planning. The United Kingdom, for example, is purchasing 14.6 million treatment courses and France is purchasing 13 million treatment courses.

6. Does Roche expect to be able to meet this demand?

-- Roche has met all government requests to date.

7. Are anti-virals a better strategy, long-term, against the threat of the avian and other potential influenza pandemics, than vaccines and vaccination?

--Good pandemic planning should include provisions for both vaccines and antivirals. Antivirals provide a readily accessible option to bridge between the initial wave of pandemic and subsequent availability of vaccines.

8. Anything else important you can say about Tamiflu as protection, individual and collective, against the threat of an avian flu pandemic?

-- Tamiflu has been used to treat H5N1 cases in both Thailand and Vietnam and to protect poultry workers in the Netherlands in the H7N7 avian outbreak in 2003. The WHO has said that "currently available evidence suggests that Tamiflu is effective in the treatment of H5N1 infections in humans." The WHO has advised that "pending the availability of vaccines, antiviral drugs will be the principal medical intervention for reducing morbidity and mortality, which becomes the most important priority once a pandemic is underway. Stockpiling drugs in advance is presently the only way to ensure that sufficient supplies are available at the time of a pandemic."