Two Asian generic vaccine manufacturers dispute claims by the Roche corporation that the flu vaccine Tamiflu is difficult and dangerous to manufacture. In early October, the Swiss-based pharmaceutical company said the drug, widely considered the most effective in fighting avian influenza in humans, was too difficult for other companies to manufacture. Roche officials have also said that producing Tamiflu is a dangerous process, involving a potentially explosive step that involves a chemical reaction with sodium azide, whose explosive potential has made it the common choice in automobile air bags. But scientists at Taiwan's National Health Research Institutes and at Cipla Ltd., an Indian generic-drug manufacturer, say they have finished reproducing Tamiflu, the Wall Street Journal said Thursday. However, David Reddy, head of pandemic planning for Roche, said "making the drug at laboratory scale is vastly different than making it at commercial scale," which he doubted either Asian group had accomplished. © Copyright 2005 by United Press International

---

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)

---