The Hindu Business Line : Cipla offers to step-up swine flu drug supplies

Mumbai, Nov. 11 As countries face shortages in the supply of drugs to treat Influenza A (HINI) or swine flu, drug-maker Cipla has indicated that it is ready to step-up its generic supplies of Oseltamivir and Zanamivir to India and other countries such as the US.

Cipla has offered to sell generic Oseltamivir, the generic version of Roche’s anti-viral drug Tamiflu, to the US, said Cipla Chairman and Managing Director, Dr Y.K. Hamied, adding, however, that at present it does not sell to the US and Europe because the drug is patent protected in these markets.

Cipla has clocked exports of about $ 10 million, exporting these drugs to Latin America, Africa, South-East Asia and West Asia, he said. And maybe the situation could change in the US and Europe, he hinted, because of the non-availability of the drug. In June, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared swine flu a pandemic and in India, over 500 people have died from it.

Cipla also expects the WHO to fast-track its paediatric version Oseltamivir, he told reporters, formally unveiling Cipla’s Antiflu (Oseltamivir) and Virenza or Zanamivir, an inhalable drug sold originally by GlaxoSmithKline under the name Relenza. Antiflu is priced at Rs 475 for both the adult (10 capsule strip) and child-versions (75 ml), while Virenza is priced at Rs 800.

The Centre’s decision to allow the sale of these drugs at selective chemists shops, Dr Hamied said, has reduced the panic in that people know that the drug is available. The pricing is also about 10 per cent less than the US price, he said, adding that it was offered to the Indian government at a still lower price.

Outlining the difficulty in planning inventories in such situations, he said Cipla had revenues of about $ 20 million blocked on Oseltamivir, when it produced 2.5 tonnes of the product during the 2005 bird flu scare but “couldn’t sell a gram.”

Pointing out the difficulties in sourcing the raw material, he suggested that like China, the Indian Government too needed to take measures to stock Shikimic acid obtained from the Chinese herb star anise. It takes 14 steps to convert the raw material into one tonne of Oseltamivir and the entire process takes about four weeks, Dr Hamied said. A tonne of the material can be given to one million patients, he added.