HerbalScience launches NuHerbal ViraBloc: herbal alternative to Roche's Tamiflu?

Since 2003, the world has been on alert and governments have been stockpiling antivirals in case the H5N1 strain of avian influenza could cause the next flu pandemic. While the number of human deaths is still very low, fatalities this year have risen 74% over last year, according to World Health Organization data.

These findings add to a recent study conducted by research teams at the USA's Johns Hopkins University and the Beer-Sheva, Israel-based Ben-Gurion University, which stated that only 14% of the world's population could be vaccinated within a year of a pandemic's onset. Equally disturbing, the same study found that it could take a decade to produce enough of Swiss drug major Roche's antiviral Tamiflu (oseltamivir) to treat just 20% of the world's population.

Recognizing the critical need for an alternative treatment, HerbalScience, a Singapore-based specialist in the production of botanical medicines and nutraceuticals, began intensive research into creating a new antiviral compound based on its unique Elder Berry extract. According to the firm, after testing by virologists, microbiologists and biochemists in the USA and Singapore, it is now ready to launch its low-cost herbal treatment for both common flu and the potentially devastating bird flu.