/24-7PressRelease/ - NEW YORK, NY, January 04, 2006 - Roche pandemic chief David Reddy declared that we are pleased to announce the partnership with Hetero Drugs as the latest step in our scale-up efforts to meet the needs of governments in preparing for the potential public health threat posed by avian influenza.
The agreement with Hetero covers India and other developing nations and allows the Indian firm to produce a generic version of the flu treatment specifically for governments wishing to create emergency stores.
Swiss pharmaceutical group Roche said that An Indian company, Hetero Drugs, has been granted the right to produce the antiviral Tamiflu, which is considered the first line of defense against the H5N1 avian flu virus, for poor countries taking measures against bird flu and a possible influenza pandemic.
Roche commented on Dec. 12, it has been negotiating with 12 drugmakers in several countries on sub-licensing of Tamiflu.
Roche said Hetero would be able to start supplying the drug in the first half of 2006.
Tamiflu, which has been in short supply worldwide, is considered effective against the potential outbreak of human-to-human transmission of the H5N1 strain of virus, which has been causing bird flu epidemic among poultry in Asia and Europe.
Most avian flu viruses are not infectious to humans. Should an avian and a human influenza virus co-infect a human or pig, the virus strains can join mutate and create a completely new virus, which may be transmissible from animals to humans, and from humans to humans.
The oseltamivir sub-licensing deal with Hetero allows the inventor and original producer's intellectual property rights to be respected, Roche said.
"The recognition of intellectual property in India through this partnership with Hetero therefore is very significant as it respects the new Indian Patent legislation," Roche said.
This is prepared by the editor of http://www.neglog.com on that basis of current news and articles.
Editing Group
Flu-information.be Content Team
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