Rumsfeld cashes in on bird flu

WASHINGTON - US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has made more than US$5 million ($7.8 million) from selling shares in the biotech firm behind Tamiflu, the drug being bought to treat a possible bird flu pandemic.

More than 60 countries have so far ordered large stocks of the antiviral drug to try to protect their people against the deadly H5N1 strain of the disease. The United Nations estimates that a pandemic could kill 150 million people worldwide.

Tamiflu does not cure the disease, but if taken soon after symptoms appear it can reduce its severity.

The drug was developed by Californian biotech company Gilead Sciences. Rumsfeld was Gilead's chairman from 1997 to 2001. He sold some of his shares in 2004 for more than US$5 million.

- INDEPENDENT