Tamiflu is most effective treatment for swine flu

WASHINGTON, Apr 29, 2009 (The Dallas Morning News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- GILD | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Tamiflu, an antiviral prescription medication in pill form, so far is the most effective treatment for combating the new swine flu and for protecting health care workers who may be exposed to it.

The drug is made and marketed by Roche Holding AG of Switzerland but was developed by Gilead Sciences Inc. of California in 1996.

Demand for the drug rose quickly with the threat of a deadly bird strain of flu that emerged in 2004, and all 50 states and dozens of countries now have enough strategic stockpiles of the drug for 220 million people. The drug has a seven-year shelf life.

Roche said Tuesday that it could ramp up production to 400 million courses a year.

More orders are on the way. The Obama administration said it would seek $1.5 billion from Congress to combat the threat of a swine flu pandemic and is in talks with Roche about increasing production.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, said at least $122 million of that should be used to buy more antiviral drugs. The federal government has a stockpile of 50 million courses of Tamiflu, while states have separate stockpiles of 23 million. Some of the federal stockpile was released to Texas and other affected states Sunday, and federal officials said Tuesday all 50 states will be receiving supplies by Sunday.

Public health workers are seeking $563 million for antiviral drugs, masks and special respirators to protect themselves while treating infected patients. The drug has proven effective in warding off the disease if medical workers take the full, five-day treatment course.

"We don't want the ordinary you or me to go out and start taking Tamiflu. But if you got sick with a 101-degree temperature, and it's within 48 hours of the onset of illness, you'd be a good candidate to receive it, once you've had a spot check for flu," said Dr. James Luby, an infectious disease specialist at the UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

"A relative sick with diabetes living in the house would also be a good candidate to receive it," Luby said.

Relenza, a drug made by GlaxoSmithKline that works with an inhaler, is also effective against the strain of swine flu now appearing around the world if taken early enough.

What works this time may not work in the future, however. Many American flu sufferers were unable to get relief from Tamiflu and Relenza during the current flu season because of resistance to the drugs among some virus strains.

The flu sweeping Mexico and now appearing in several other countries is a strain never seen before by virus hunters. It is a mix of genetic material from humans, birds and pigs.

Federal scientists have already isolated "seed" samples of the virus and shipped them to vaccine manufacturers, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of allergy and infectious disease at the National Institutes of Health.

But a decision on whether to order a vaccine hasn't been made yet. Rear Adm. Anne Schuchat, acting interim deputy director of the public health program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told a Senate hearing Tuesday that her agency was considering whether to develop a vaccine for just this strain of flu or a combination of flu viruses.

In 1976, a vaccine quickly developed to counteract what federal officials feared could be a pandemic swine flu was tied to multiple cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a paralyzing illness.

"We are trying to learn the lessons of 1976 so that we learn and do as well as we can," she said.

Roche has made 5 million courses of Tamiflu available to the World Health Organization and has licensed other manufacturers to make the drug. Earlier this month, Gilead was denied patent protection for Tamiflu (formally known as oseltamivir) by India's Patent Protection Office, and Indian pharmaceutical maker Cipla Ltd. has moved its own version of the drug into production.

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