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Roche's Tamiflu efficacy doubted

Date published: 15/12/2005

The effectiveness of antiviral drug Tamiflu has been brought into doubt after two patients developed resistance to the drug. An article in the New England Journal of Medicine has said that two H5N1 infected patients treated with the Tamiflu drug had died. The bird flu virus was said to have developed a resistance in both individuals.

Tamiflu has been ordered by government health bodies across the world in an effort to fight a possible pandemic, resulting from a combination of bird and human flu. However, if a pandemic flu is resistant to the virus, governments may have to find other solutions.

Virologist and director of the National Institute for Medical Research, Sir John Skehel, told the Press Association that the Government should not rely on Tamiflu exclusively and should consider other treatments such as Relenza.

"The fear is that the virus that comes here might be resistant. We should be stockpiling other drugs. Some of these mutations are only resistant to Tamiflu. But I am not aware how much Relenza is available," he said.

Meanwhile, the H5N1 virus has claimed the lives of two more individuals in Indonesia, bringing the total number of bird flu deaths in the country to 11

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