Additional partners boost Roche's Tamiflu production to 400m units a year

Roche has further expanded its manufacturing network for production of Tamiflu and expects by the end of 2006, to have capacity up to 400 million treatments annually. The latest capacity ramp-up of 100 million treatments will be achieved through new external production partners as well as expansion in the drug producer's own facilities.

Roche has now appointed more than 15 external contractors located in nine different countries. Albemarle, Ampac Fine Chemicals, API Corporation, Clariant, DSM, FIS, Martek Biosciences Corporation, Novasep/Dynamit Nobel, PHT International, PPG Industries, Sanofi-Aventis, Shaanxi Jiahe Phytochem Co and Siegfried are among the companies that will be contributing to the overall production of Tamiflu.

Roche is in final stage of negotiations for a sub-license with a company in China. It is also evaluating opportunities to enable production in Africa. This is in addition to sub-licenses for the production of osel-tamivir that were granted to Hetero and Shanghai Pharmaceuticals last year.

William Burns, ceo of Roche Pharma Division, said: "We are now ahead of demand in meeting the manufacturing challenge, but as a research-based company, our role goes beyond this. We are committed to further expanding the knowledge base regarding Tamiflu and the H5N1 virus but we cannot do this alone and we need to collaborate with third parties moving forward."

Roche has in place a number of research initiatives to answer questions raised on the use of Tamiflu against the evolving H5N1 avian virus and is seeking collaborations with clinicians/institutions involved in treating those infected with avian influenza.

The currently circulating H5N1 viruses in South East Asia and Turkey has led to 177 cases in humans which resulted in 98 deaths.