NZ's Tamiflu stocks empty

Commercial stockpiles of the anti-viral medication Tamiflu have run out in New Zealand and will not be available until May next year when the southern hemisphere influenza season starts.

Stuart Knight, sales and marketing director of Roche Products New Zealand confirmed commercial stockpiles of Tamiflu had run out.

"We supply down to pharmaceutical wholesalers, they then distribute down to individual pharmacies.

"We placed our last, very significant, order at the beginning of November, and it would be my belief there is none [currently] available, because there is a significant back order."

Mr Knight said considerable amounts of Tamiflu had already been brought into New Zealand.

"I'm not able to give you absolute numbers but I could say to you that compared to what we normally supply for a seasonal influenza, we've supplied about 120 years' worth of Tamiflu within about a four month period.

"Overall, the fact that we've also completed the Government's pandemic anti-viral supply, we've probably got the highest per capita Tamiflu supply of any country at the present time."

Roche this month completed delivery of the Government's order of 835,000 individual Tamiflu courses.

Mr Knight said that although people would be disappointed that Tamiflu was not available, large quantities of the medication had been supplied at very short notice.

"Our need to prioritise other parts of the world is based on global demand and having to get supplies to where they are needed," he said.

Production of Tamiflu will be concentrated on the northern hemisphere winter flu season, which is approaching, and filling Government orders to minimise risk of a global pandemic.

Canterbury Health clinical virologist Lance Jennings said good data was not available on the efficacy of Tamiflu in human H5N1 infections.

"The bottom line is with regard to Tamiflu for a pandemic influenza, for a virus that we don't know, we are not really going to know how effective it's going to be until that virus emerges," Dr Jennings said.

But he added: "It is important we have a national stockpile of Tamiflu which is available at the start of another pandemic. At the end of the day, we've got nothing else."

National's health spokesman Tony Ryall said Health Minister Pete Hodgson needed to explain what the lack of of Tamiflu would mean for pandemic planning.

Roche Products New Zealand managing director Svend Petersen said Roche has made similar announcements so far in the USA, Canada and China.

Roche has doubled its worldwide Tamiflu production capabilities this year and will be able to produce 300 million packs a year by 2007. It is currently in talks with other firms to further increase global production.

- NZPA