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Taiwan Health Department Could Produce Bird Flu Drug Locally

Posted on: Monday, 17 October 2005, 15:00 CDT

Text of report by Deborah Kuo, carried in English by Taiwanese Central News Agency website

Taipei, 17 October: The Department of Health (DOH) has contingency plans to help Taiwan secure enough medication against a possible pandemic of avian flu, a health department official said Monday [17 October].

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "Vaccines effective against a pandemic virus are not yet available. Vaccines are produced each year for seasonal influenza but will not protect against pandemic influenza. Although a vaccine against the H5N1 virus is under development in several countries, no vaccine is ready for commercial production and no vaccines are expected to be widely available until several months after the start of a pandemic." However, the seasonal flu drug commercially known as "Tamiflu, " could improve the survival prospects of persons infected with the H5N1 virus, if it is administered in a timely fashion, according to the WHO.

With this in mind, Liao Chi-chou, director of the DOH Bureau of Pharmaceutical Affairs, said Taiwan's health department has earmarked 400m NT dollars (11.97m dollars) to be used next year to purchase Tamiflu and materials, should a pandemic occur. Half of the money will go towards buying Tamiflu from its manufacturer, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche, and half will be used to purchase raw materials from the company to produce the drug in Taiwan.

As the world gears up to battle a possible bird flu pandemic, Taiwan is grappling with a lack of drugs and vaccines and working hard to find solutions to the shortages, he said.

The health department has contracted the Taiwan Clinical Pharmacy Association to provide training courses to local pharmacies around the country, including those on outlying islands, to enable them to know how to formulate the drug before the end of the year, Liao noted.

Health department authorities said Sunday that they have stockpiled only 160, 000 doses of Tamiflu, far short of the five million that it estimates the country would need to fight a bird flu pandemic.

As the weather is gradually turning colder and migratory birds are flying to Taiwan to overwinter, health authorities are reminding people to maintain good hygiene, such as washing their hands and avoiding uncooked meat and eggs.

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

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