Bird flu epicentre gets Tamiflu rights

HANOI - Swiss drug-maker Roche has agreed to give Vietnam, the country worst hit by bird flu, the right to make the anti-viral medicine Tamiflu, local reports have said.

So far, 42 of the 64 people killed by the H5N1 strain of the virus have died in Vietnam. Tamiflu can reduce the severity of flu and might slow the spread of a much-feared pandemic should the virus mutate to move easily between humans.

Vietnam has 57 factories capable of producing the drug, thought to be among the best available should H5N1 take hold in humans, and Roche would pick its local partner, the Voice of Vietnam radio said.

Roche said it had offered several options for Vietnam to produce Tamiflu and it was up to the Government how it wanted to proceed.

They declined to comment on details of the production plan.

Under pressure from generic drug companies and politicians in developing nations and the United States, Roche agreed in October to discuss granting licences to make generic versions of the drug.

The company is currently the only manufacturer of Tamiflu.

Vietnam has ordered 25 million Tamiflu tablets and radio reports said Roche had agreed to deliver two million tablets before the end of the year, a further eight million tablets within eight months and 15 million more by the end of 2006.

Meanwhile, Vietnamese researchers said they would begin producing bird flu vaccines for humans from Thursday.

The vaccines would be tested on volunteers before mass production, the online newspaper VietnamNet quoted officials from the Health Ministry as saying.

- REUTERS