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| Hetero Drugs gets govt order to supply Tamiflu |
| CH Prashant Reddy / Hyderabad Apr 30, 2009, 00:29 IST |
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Hetero Drugs Ltd (HDL), a Hyderabad-based drugmaker that produces Roche’s licensed version of Tamiflu, said it received an order from the Indian government to supply the anti-influenza vaccine and had also received inquiries from other countries.
HDL, however, plans to give priority to the Union health ministry's order that had sought 1 million doses following the swine flu outbreak.
“We already have the stock and are waiting for confirmation from the ministry,” HDL Director (marketing) M Srinivas Reddy told Business Standard, adding that the confirmation was expected in a couple of days.
Hetero is the only local company that has a sub-licence to manufacture the generic versions of Roche's Tamiflu that proved to be effective in the treatment of avian flu cases when the virus spread a few years earlier.
The drug is now being sought after, though the swine flu virus is different from that of Avian flu.
For the treatment of avian flu, HDL had supplied Tamiflu to India and 60 other countries spread over West Asia, South East Asia, Latin America and Africa.
A 23-month-old Texan child became the first to die in the US from swine flu and hundreds of students in New York city are suspected to be infected.
The death of the child and new cases being reported indicate that the disease is spreading outside Mexico. US President Barack Obama has asked Congress for $1.5 billion in new funding to brace for an outbreak. New York accounts for 45 of the 65 confirmed US cases in six states, Bloomberg reported.
“Now an additional 25 countries are seeking supply of Tamiflu, though in small quantities,” Reddy said. HDL, which has an installed capacity to produce 80 million doses of Tamiflu per month, has the licence to market the drug in 100 countries.
Meanwhile, Ranbaxy Laboratories, India’s biggest drug maker, says it can begin supplies of the anti-influenza vaccine at short notice, should it get any orders.
“We produce Oseltamavir API and formulations and can start supplies at fairly short notice to meet urgent requirements of countries, to tide over the crisis emerging from outbreak of swine flu,” Ramesh Adige, President, Ranbaxy, said in an emailed response.
The Centre is now estimated to be having a stock of over 2 million doses of Tamiflu supplied earlier. Unlike many other drugs, Tamiflu has a shelf life of five years.
HDL supplies Tamiflu to the government at a subsidised rate, about 30 per cent less than the price at which it exports. “This we do it as part of our social responsibility,” said Reddy.
Established in 1993, HDL, an unlisted company, has six manufacturing facilities.
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