PR-USA.net (press release)

Sunday, 05 July 2009

Roche launches novel program to ease Tamiflu access to developing
economies

Tamiflu Reserves Program designed as a pandemic insurance policy for
the world’s developing economies

Roche today announced the initiation of the Tamiflu Reserves Program
(TRP) for developing economies. The program, which is effective
immediately, will serve to ensure that Tamiflu (oseltamivir) is
available to many governments and patients in developing nations for
use when the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared an influenza
pandemic*, or for the management of a novel influenza strain defined
by WHO that has significant and current pandemic potential.
Under the TRP program, Roche will produce and store Tamiflu pandemic
stockpiles for specified developing countries at a significantly
reduced price with the cost spread over a number of years. Roche will
then ship the stockpile to the governments of countries concerned when
an influenza pandemic has been announced, or in the event of a public
health emergency, upon request from the governments concerned. The
countries can exercise their option to purchase the product at any
time.
`This new program is a further complement to the initiatives taken by
Roche to address access to Tamiflu’, said William M. Burns, Roche
Pharma CEO. `While we are offering this program to the WHO for
Tamiflu, this program is not proprietary to Roche which gives the WHO
the opportunity to apply its fundamentals to other antivirals,
vaccines, as well as medical supplies’.
The full price per pack of 10 Tamiflu capsules, excluding any local
duties, taxes or tariffs, is:
* 5 to 6 Euros per 75 mg pack,
* 3 to 3.65 Euros per 45 mg pack, and
* 2 to 2.55 Euros per 30 mg pack.
Tamiflu would be stored until time of shipment by Roche under
controlled conditions thus assuring quality and security. The exact
price, within the ranges provided above, will be dependent upon the
period of storage requested by the government or UN organisation
concerned.
`Currently only six of the world’s countries listed as low income have
a stockpile of Tamiflu which equates to 0.02% coverage for low income
economies,’ said David Reddy, Global Pandemic Preparedness Task Force
leader. `This program enables these countries to reserve Tamiflu for
pandemic preparedness for their citizens at a significantly reduced
price with the cost of purchase spread over the shelf life of the
product thus trying to offer access with affordability. The program
also addresses issues of controlled storage and security for
developing nations where this may otherwise be an issue’.
The countries who would qualify for this program would be those
countries who are members of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and
Immunization (GAVI) minus India**/***. Roche is in discussions with
agencies to establish how orders would be coordinated by a UN partner
agency such as the WHO or UNICEF and potential sources of funding
would be the World Bank, donor agencies, foundations and the countries
themselves.
In addition to the offering of the TRP, Roche has taken several steps
to address access to Tamiflu worldwide including:
* Replenishment of the WHO donation of 5.65 million treatments of
Tamiflu
* Tiered pricing for Tamiflu distinguishing between developed and
developing countries
* The issuing of sub licenses for the manufacturing of oseltamivir to
Hetero in India, Shanghai Pharma and HEC in China as well as a
technology transfer to Aspen Pharmaceuticals in South Africa
* A company policy that we do not file or enforce patents for Tamiflu
in the Least Developed Countries enabling these countries to take
local action to source anti-virals.
About Roche
Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is a leader in
research-focused healthcare with combined strengths in pharmaceuticals
and diagnostics. Roche is the world’s largest biotech company with
truly differentiated medicines in oncology, virology, inflammation,
metabolism and CNS. Roche is also the world leader in in-vitro
diagnostics, tissue-based cancer diagnostics and a pioneer in diabetes
management. Roche’s personalised healthcare strategy aims at providing
medicines and diagnostic tools that enable tangible improvements in
the health, quality of life and survival of patients.
In 2008, Roche had over 80’000 employees worldwide and invested almost
9 billion Swiss francs in R&D.
The Group posted sales of 45.6 billion Swiss francs. Genentech, United
States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche has a
majority stake in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan. For more information:

All trademarks used or mentioned in this release are protected by law.
Note to editors
* The H1N1 swine-flu virus causing the 2009 pandemic is a new virus,
antigenically very different from the seasonal A[H1N1] virus.
** the latter is not included in the programme as a sub-licence for
the production of generic oseltamivir was granted to the Indian
company Hetero by Roche in 2005
*** Countries eligible for the TRP are: Afghanistan, Angola, Armenia,
Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Burundi,
Cambodia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo,
Congo, Dem Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, Djibouti, Eritrea,
Ethiopia, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana,
Haiti, Honduras, Indonesia, Kenya, Kiribati, DPR Korea , Kyrgyz
Republic, Lao PDR, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali,
Mauritania, Moldova, Mongolia, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua,
Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, São Tomé e
Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Sri Lanka,
Sudan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Timor Leste, Togo, Uganda, Ukraine,
Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia and Zimbabwe.