Ari Sharp
April 27, 2009
THE head of the Melbourne company that developed one of the anti-viral drugs being used to treat swine flu has warned that the stockpiles of the drug held by governments around the world are not big enough to cope with a pandemic.
"Probably most countries in the world are underprepared," said Peter Cook, chief executive of Biota, the company that developed the anti-flu drug Relenza.
"Australia happens to be better than most, but I don't think any country in the world is prepared to cope with a 1918 pandemic."
The latest outbreak of swine flu has already claimed more than 100 lives in Mexico and has also been found in the United States and New Zealand.
Governments around the world have stockpiled Relenza, and the other anti-viral drug Tamiflu, in preparation for an outbreak. The World Health Organisation has confirmed that the swine flu is responding to the two drugs, and the US Government said it was readying 25 per cent of its 50 million course stockpile for use.
"Even though it's a new strain, it's not a resistant strain so therefore Relenza is one of the appropriate therapies," Mr Cook said. The US Centre for Disease Control has indicated the drug was most effective if used within 36 hours of symptoms of the flu emerging.
Biota has licenced the drug to global pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, who said through an Australian spokeswoman today that the drug maker had "increased production globally" following the weekend outbreak. Relenza is produced at three sites around the world - in France, the US and at Boronia, in Melbourne's east.
The Australian Government has a stockpile of 8.7 million courses of Tamiflu and Relenza, covering about one-third of the population, putting it behind countries such as Britain and France, which have enough courses to treat over half their population.
But with each course lasting about one week, Mr Cook said a three month pandemic meant just 5 per cent of the Australian population could be treated with the drug.
"I'm sure the population would not forgive their politicians if we were underprepared," he said.
During the last federal budget, the Government set aside $165.5 million to be spent over two years to renew its antiviral stockpile. Much of the government's stockpile had a five year life span and was approaching expiration last year following a major push to increase supplies after the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak in 2003.
Mr Cook said he did not expect the latest outbreak would immediately prompt governments to boost their stockpiles, but that it brought the issue to the attention of policy makers.
"These things have always got long lead times. Governments don't spend hundreds of million of dollars instantly. This creates the right scene for the politicians to think about whether they've got this thing properly managed, it helps the bureaucrats who are trying to manage it," he said.
"It ultimately does leave to a revision and an upgrading in the stockpiles and their content, but it's not instant. This isn't `Gosh, I'm thirsty, I'll go and buy a Coke'."
Source: http://business.theage.com.au/business/swine-flu-drug-stockpiles-inadequate-20090427-ak1c.html
Poor countries could face swine flu drug shortages
27 Apr 2009 15:51:42 GMT
Source: Reuters
* Global antiviral supply to be strained in pandemic
* Poor countries may face shortages as swine flu spreads
By Laura MacInnis
GENEVA, April 27 (Reuters)
- Developing countries could struggle to access the antiviral drugs they need to combat a fast-spreading outbreak of swine flu, which has killed 103 people in Mexico, health activists said on Monday.
"It is going to become a problem," said Sangeeta Shashikant of the Third World Network, which campaigns for better drug access for the poor.
She said "advance purchase agreements" and other deals securing medicines for wealthy governments could drain the global supply chain of effective medicines.
The antiviral drugs Tamiflu made by Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG
But there are not likely to be enough doses to treat the whole world in a pandemic, and production is limited.
"Many countries have stockpiled antivirals, although how to deliver them within a maximum of 48 hours remains a huge challenge," the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said in a statement.
"Preparedness levels in middle income and lower income countries remain low. Therefore it is likely that this flu outbreak will also be a test for global solidarity," it said.
The international health community must work to ensure that drugs reach those who truly need them to avoid needless deaths, said Mike Palmedo, research coordinator at American University's programme on information justice and intellectual property.
"I suspect that in the event of an epidemic, many countries would find their supplies inadequate," he said, suggesting that increased generic production could help ease shortfalls.
"Whatever the amount of drugs currently available, more generic competition would drive prices down further, making access available to more countries."
India's Cipla
Roche said the World Health Organisation had not yet asked it to deploy 3 million treatment courses being held as a "fire blanket" to use wherever a pandemic breaks out.
The WHO also has an additional 2 million packs that Roche donated in the past for use in countries which are not so well prepared for a pandemic.
Shares in Roche and Glaxo rose 4 and 5 percent in European trading on Monday on expectations those companies would benefit as governments and corporations set up orders for their drugs.
Efforts to create a swine flu vaccine could also create strains for poorer states, especially if manufacturers who take virus samples offer them at a high price, Shashikant warned.
"You need production for developing countries and access to technology," she said.
Indonesia created diplomatic uproar at the height of the world's bird flu pandemic fears three years ago when it refused to share virus samples without a guarantee that poor states would later be able to afford the vaccines developed.
Developing a vaccine against the variety of swine flu circulating will take several months.
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLR672817
Swine flu drug going abroad
Relenza, a more effective anti-viral drug than Tamiflu made in Montrose, is being exported as far away as Australia
Mark Macaskill
Scotland is producing for export millions of doses of an anti-viral drug that combats swine flu, while relying on a cheaper alternative, because of a deal struck by the government.
The Scottish government’s effort to combat a possible pandemic is heavily reliant on Tamiflu, an oral drug produced by the Swiss manufacturer Roche, despite warnings that it may be ineffective. Several countries have also reported concerns the drug may cause mental illness among teenagers.
An alternative, more dependable drug is being manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline at a factory in Arbroath. The production process is then completed in France before the drugs are exported to 26 countries around the world. More than 28m doses made in Scotland have been been delivered to France, Australia and Germany alone.
There here have been reports of seasonal H1N1 flu becoming resistant to Tamiflu, which has also been linked with the suicide of more than 20 people in Japan.
Since swine flu was first reported in Mexico last month it has killed about 100 people and spread to 16 other countries.
Hugh Pennington, emeritus professor of bacteriology at Aberdeen University, warned that stocks of Relenza had to be urgently increased. “We have to get as much Relenza as possible because we don’t know how effective Tamiflu will be,” he said.
“There is an issue of Tamiflu resistance. It would be nice to get as much Relenza as we can get our hands on.
“Nobody really knows ifTamiflu will significantly reduce transmission, the expectation is it will, but we don’t know for sure.”
Mary Scanlon, the health spokeswoman for the Scottish Conservatives, said: “I would have thought that the Scottish government would be purchasing as much Relenza as possible, particularly given that it is produced by GlaxoSmithKline in Montrose.”
Tamiflu and Relenza work by blocking a protein on the surface of influenza particles called neuraminidase, which allows the virus to spread from infected cells to other cells in the body.
Mutant H1N1 viruses evade Tamiflu through a single mutation in the neuraminidase that prevents the medicine from clinging to the viral protein, enabling the pathogen to spread.
Relenza is not currently affected by the mutation. Since Tamiflu went on sale in Japan in 2001, about 1,300 people have allegedly exhibited neuropsychiatric symptoms, of whom 71 have died.
Twenty-seven, most in their teens, fell from buildings. Clinical trials are under way to establish if there is a link.
Source: www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article6211387.ece
My reaction
1) The world business shutdown due to the H1N1 flu virus.
2) The H1N1 virus has reached 24 countries and infected more than 2,000 people, according to data from the World Health Organization and national authorities.
3) The new flu, a mixture of swine viruses and elements of human and bird flu, has taken the world to the point of a pandemic and stoked trade and diplomatic tensions as some nations, most prominently China, quarantined Mexican citizens and products.
4) As the toll within swine flu cases have risen.
5) H1N1 human influenza viruses are not spread by food.
6) Tourism, retail and stretched budget shortage economies are potentially at risk.
7) The situation is changing at a rapid pace and, with widespread media coverage.
8) Increase the alert level because the virus had already spread to around the world.
9) WHO warn a second wave of the virus "would be the biggest of all outbreaks the world has faced in the 21st century”
conclusion
WHO announces that there is the way to cure the 2009 H1N1 influenza.
The World Health Organisation has confirmed that the swine flu is responding to the two drugs. The world has stockpiled Relenza, and the other anti-viral drug Tamiflu, in preparation for an outbreak. Firstly, the experts believed these 2 anti viruses should work together because Tamiflu and Relenza work by jamming a protein on the outside of influenza particles called neuraminidase, which permits the virus to reach from infected cells to other cells in the body. However, they found that Relenza has more effective anti-viral drug than Tamiflu. And they decide to use it instead of Tamiflu when they have already founded that the 2009 H1N1 influenza resists this vaccine.
Now the Swine flu or 2009 H1N1 influenza are spreading all over the world.
In fact, its symptoms is like the normal flu such as coughing, sneezing, having a headache, and sore throat.
However, this is pandemic disease and it will be destroying people around the world.
Indeed, it is not much harmful to human if we know the right way to handle to it and the way to cure it.
But it is hard to make the effective vaccine right now because this is the mutation virus and right now it cannot find the best vaccine to be successful on it and if it happened, this process must take time for several months.
And if it takes too much time, I think we may have many people who suffer from this disease, which is, we don’t want it to happen.
The 2009 H1N1 influenza also called swine influenza, swine flu, and pig flu. Swine flu is type of virus. Its name for virus that pigs can get. Normally, people do not get swine flu, but human infection can and do happen. Unfortunately, the virus is contagious and can spread from human to human. Symptoms of H1N1 Flu in people are similar to regular human flu and include fever, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. Thus, we should prepare and study the prevention of it and please don’t be too careless about it even it doesn’t come near to your life.
