Roche have increased its own production capacity by the end of 2006 to then be in a position to produce 300 million treatments of Tamiflu annually. The expansion will be achieved by a further stepwise scale-up of Roche's production network. It means a ten fold increase over the capacity in 2004 when the decision was taken to increase production, without any firm pandemic orders in place, in order to meet government's needs for pandemic planning.
William M. Burns, CEO Division Roche Pharma, said, "Patients' needs in case of a pandemic remain our top priority. We have continually increased our production capacities and are now putting in place the means to increase production of Tamiflu to 300 million treatments as of 2007. In addition, we have entered into discussions with a number of interested parties to expand world wide supply, so governments can be as prepared as possible for when the influenza pandemic happens."
According to a company release, more than 150 requests from third parties have been received to date and Roche production experts have already been in initial talks with 8 companies, amongst them large generic manufacturers and major pharmaceutical companies, as well as with a number of governments, including Taiwan and Vietnam. The goal is to be in a position to select potential partners for more detailed discussions by the end of November. Selection criteria are quality, technical ability, capacity and the speed of bringing that capacity on stream.
Roche has been working with many governments over the last few years to determine their needs for stockpiling of Tamiflu and has received and fulfilled orders from around 50 countries
Roche has also pledged to donate 3 million treatments to the WHO for use where an influenza pandemic may start. This amount, according to experts, could contain or stop the spread of a potential pandemic at the source of the outbreak, if delivered rapidly.
Recently Roche has donated Tamiflu to Turkey and Romania, following the emergence of the avian influenza virus in these countries.
Tamiflu is designed to be active against all clinically relevant influenza viruses and key international research groups have demonstrated, using animal models of influenza that Tamiflu is effective against the avian H5N1 strain circulating in the Far East. It works by blocking the action of the neuraminidase (NAI) enzyme on the surface of the virus. When neuraminidase is inhibited, the virus is not able to spread to and infect other cells in the body.