Roche has further expanded its global manufacturing network for the production of Tamiflu and by the end of 2006, will have the capacity to produce up to 400 million treatments annually. This further ramp-up of capacity by 100 million treatments will be achieved through the addition of external production partners identified over the past few months as well as expansion in Roche owned facilities.

Roche's global network for the manufacture of Tamiflu will include several Roche sites and more than 15 external contractors located in 9 different countries around the world. These production partners have been selected primarily on the basis of their ability to produce substantial quantities of intermediates and finished materials in accordance with Roche's quality standards in a relatively short time frame. Albemarle, Ampac Fine Chemicals LLC, API Corporation, Clariant, DSM, FIS, Martek Biosciences Corporation, Novasep/Dynamit Nobel, PHT International, PPG Industries, Sanofi-Aventis, Shaanxi Jiahe Phytochem Co and Siegfried Ltd are amongst the companies that will be involved in contributing to the overall production of Tamiflu, stated a company release.

Roche is in final stage of negotiations for a sublicense with a company in China. Roche is also evaluating sharing of expertise in order to enable production in Africa. This is in addition to sub-licenses for the complete production of oseltamivir that were granted to Hetero and Shanghai Pharmaceuticals last year.

William M.Burns, CEO Roche Pharma Division, said: "Following our open invitation to third parties last year, we have now identified partners who will allow us to expand the global Tamiflu capacity to as much as 400 million treatments annually by the end of this year. Of course, the rate at which this capacity is utilized will depend in large part on the future order flow from governments around the world. We are now ahead of demand in meeting the manufacturing challenge, but as a research based company, our role goes beyond this."