From rxpgnews.com

Avian Influenza
Further expansion in Tamiflu production by Roche
By Roche
Nov 8, 2005, 21:23

Roche announces today that it will have increased its own production capacity by the end of 2006 to then be in a position to produce 300 million treatments of Tamiflu annually. The expansion will be achieved by a further stepwise scale-up of Roche�s production network. It means a ten fold increase over the capacity in 2004 when the decision was taken to increase production, without any firm pandemic orders in place, in order to meet government�s needs for pandemic planning.

William M. Burns, CEO Division Roche Pharma, commented: �Patients� needs in case of a pandemic remain our top priority. We have continually increased our production capacities and are now putting in place the means to increase production of Tamiflu to 300 million treatments as of 2007. In addition, we have entered into discussions with a number of interested parties to expand world wide supply, so governments can be as prepared as possible for when the influenza pandemic happens.�

More than 150 requests from third parties have been received to date and Roche production experts have already been in initial talks with 8 companies, amongst them large generic manufacturers and major pharmaceutical companies, as well as with a number of governments, including Taiwan and Vietnam. The goal is to be in a position to select potential partners for more detailed discussions by the end of November. Selection criteria are quality, technical ability, capacity and the speed of bringing that capacity on stream.

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