Roche - Producers of Tamiflu

Bird flu shows resistance to Roche's Tamiflu in Vietnam - UDPATE

ZURICH (AFX) - Fresh doubts were cast on the efficacy of Roche Holding AG's
Tamiflu as a treatment for bird flu when one of the worlds leading medical
journals published new reports of resistance to the drug and deaths in patients
in Vietnam, the Financial Times said.
Menno de Jong and colleagues from the hospital for tropical diseases in Ho
Chi Minh City recorded in the New England Journal of Medicine that four out of
eight patients suffering from the H5N1 flu strain and treated with Tamiflu had
died, including two who developed resistance.
The study raises new questions about the drug, which more than 50
governments have ordered in recent months to stockpile as a potential
prophylactic and treatment in the case of a flu pandemic.
An accompanying article in the Journal reinforced calls for alternative
approaches to treatment for a pandemic, including stockpiling rival drug
zanamivir, or Relenza, made by GlaxoSmithKline PLC.
The FT cited Roche as saying it took the reports seriously, and was stepping
up its own clinical research on Tamiflus use in humans and animals, including
work on dosages of twice the current levels for longer periods. It said findings
should be ready early next year.
Earlier, De Jong told Agence France-Presse that Tamiflu had been ineffective
in fighting the virus in the two girls who developed resistance despite being
given were deemed full doses.
"Both (patients) died, and in one patient there are some suggestions that
the therapeutic failure and ultimately her death may have been caused by the
development of resistance," he said.
(recasts, adds New England Journal of Medicine report, changes dateline)