Roche responds to Royal Society flu report

In its response to the UK Royal Society and Academy of Sciences report on pandemic influenza, Swiss drug major Roche says that it is committed to supporting the country's pandemic preparedness program.

The report highlighted the UK government's decision to stockpile "just one" antiviral, Roche's Tamiflu (oseltamivir) as a major concern, citing the emergence of resistant strains of H5N1 as the basis for reassessment of this policy. The firm, which says it has already completed the delivery of 14.6 million doses of the product to the UK, said that, in December last year, the World Health Organization said that resistance to neuraminidase inhibitors has been clinically negligible, and added that no new evidence had emerged since this statement was made.

Roche went on to say that data collected by the Neuraminidase Inhibitor Susceptibility Network from around 4,000 patients treated with the drug indicate that the overall incidence of resistance in this group was 0.32% in adults and 4.1% in children. The company said it will continue to work with external experts to monitor any resistance to Tamiflu.