Roche met with the Taiwanese government earlier this week and committed to supply the required Tamiflu order according to mutually agreed delivery timelines.

The Taiwanese government would issue a compulsory license for use only if Roche could not meet the requested delivery timelines for the pandemic order with surprise. However, fallback on compulsory license will be unnecessary as agreed delivery timelines will be met by Roche, claims a company release.

Roche will provide Taiwan with an additional 1.3 million treatments of Tamiflu (oseltamivir) next year, taking the total treatments of Tamiflu ordered for pandemic use in the country to 2.3 million treatments. This will be used to safeguard the public health of citizens in Taiwan in the event of an influenza pandemic. Roche's ability to meet the needs of Taiwan has been made possible due to a global scale-up effort that has been underway at Roche since 2004, resulting in a production output by the end of 2006 of 300 million treatments a year.

In addition, during a recent visit to Taiwan, members of Roche reviewed the manufacturing capabilities of a local company with a view to issuing a voluntary license to produce Tamiflu for local pandemic use. As a result of this review, it was clear that the local company could not produce the drug more rapidly or at lower cost than Roche.

"We are confident that we will be in a position to deliver the quantities of Tamiflu requested by the Taiwanese government in the required timelines. Therefore, the possibility of a compulsory license being invoked is unnecessary," said David Reddy, Roche pandemic task force leader.

Roche has been working with many governments over the last few years to determine their needs for stockpiling of Tamiflu and has received and/or 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.

Tamiflu, which was originated by Gilead Sciences, California, 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.

The WHO has recommended as part of its pandemic preparedness plan that countries establish stockpiles of antiviral treatments such as Tamiflu, which are effective against all strains of the influenza virus.