Roche in talks with WHO to stockpile Tamiflu

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Swiss pharmaceuticals group Roche is in talks with the World Health Organization (WHO) to donate a stockpile of its anti-avian flu drug Tamiflu, the company said on Tuesday.

“Roche is working with the WHO to develop a rapid response stockpile of Tamiflu," Roche spokeswoman Martina Rupp said. “We are working together to try to manage an outbreak should one occur.”

Rupp declined to comment on the value of the potential donation or how many doses would be stockpiled.

The Financial Times reported earlier on Tuesday that Roche was in talks to stockpile up to 1 million treatments worldwide to fight a potential avian flu pandemic. The newspaper said Roche had already donated 120,000 doses to the WHO.

At about $25 per dose, the donation could be worth as much as $25 million.

Roche said last month that sales of the drug could reach at least 750 million Swiss francs ($609.3 million) this year, up from 330 million francs in 2004. So far 17 countries have placed orders for the drug and the company is talking to 10 other countries about placing orders.

The bird flu has killed 51 people in Asia since 2003, and health experts fear the H5N1 bird flu virus could mutate into a strain easily transmitted in humans, causing a worldwide epidemic - or pandemic - in which millions could die. 

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