Roche urges stockpiling of avian flu vaccine

BASEL, Switzerland Roche has laid out plans and is urging companies to buy stockpiles of its influenza vaccine Tamiflu in the case of a pandemic, according to published reports. The goal for Roche is to increase sales of its product, and also to once again remind people that a pandemic could happen at any time.

Roche has released a statement detailing their new plan to allow companies to purchase stockpiles of Tamiflu. They stated “Under the new plan, businesses pay a nominal annual free to reserve their own stockpile of Tamiflu, which Roche will store and rotate to keep in date.” The fee will be $6 a year per course of treatment reserved.

The U.S. Health and Human Services Department has fully endorsed Roche with the plan, urging companies to comply.

The company currently can make 400 million courses of therapy per year.

“To date, Roche U.S. has received inquiries from more than 800 U.S.-based companies, large and small in a variety of industries, with Tamiflu orders from more than 300 companies, in quantities ranging from a few hundred to hundreds of thousands of treatment courses,” Roche said in a statement.