Indian Company to Make Generic Version of Flu Drug Tamiflu - NYTimes

A major Indian drug company announced yesterday that it would start making a generic version of Tamiflu, the anti-influenza drug that is in critically short supply in the face of a possible epidemic of avian flu.

"Right or wrong, we're going to commercialize and make oseltamivir," said Dr. Yusuf K. Hamied, chairman of Cipla of Bombay, using the drug's generic name and acknowledging that he might face a fight in the Indian courts with Roche, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant that holds the patent.

Although generic manufacturers cannot legally sell the patented drug in the West, all national patent laws, including those of the United States, allow governments to cancel patents during emergencies and either buy generics or force patent holders to license their formulas to rivals.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services, which has recently ordered 12.3 million doses of Tamiflu from Roche, said she could not comment on the effect of Cipla's announcement. "Preparing the world for a pandemic flu outbreak is a top priority, and we're looking at various options in stockpiling drugs and vaccine," said the spokeswoman, Christina Pearson. "But there are a lot of issues, and it's too early to speculate about this right now."

A major Indian pharmaceutical company Friday said it plans to bring a generic version of the anti-influenza drug Tamiflu into the market early next year, thus filling any potential shortages in the event of a bird flu epidemic.

The drug is already in short supply following fears of a possible epidemic. But the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche Holding AG, which makes Tamiflu, has refused to license generic versions of the drug despite pressure from several countries and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Dr. Yusuf K. Hamied, chairman of Cipla Ltd., told The Associated Press that his company has already developed the generic version, which would be much cheaper than Tamiflu -- the only available drug that is effective in treatment of people infected with bird flu.

''We have been able to synthesize it. Once the lab work is done things don't take too long,'' Hamied said in a telephone interview from Spain, where he was attending an international symposium on AIDs. ''We are in the process of scaling up and commercialization. That should be completed next month.''