Roche willing to talk to Indian generic drug maker on flu drug

18 October, 2005

Drug maker Roche Holding AG would be willing to discuss giving a production license for its antiviral Tamiflu drug to Indian generic drug maker Cipla, a senior Roche executive told Reuters on Tuesday. Roche's head of pandemic sales for Tamiflu, David Reddy, said in an interview that the Swiss firm had not yet been approached by Cipla, which according to them could make a copy-cat version of the Roche flu treatment to help governments build stockpiles.

"We would welcome if a company believes that it has the competencies then we would like an open discussion with them and therefore we are open to being approached," Reddy said. Reddy also said Roche had been approached by one government in Asia that was also keen to make its own generic version of Tamiflu, one of the drugs which the World Health Organization recommends stockpiling in preparation for a possible bird flu pandemic.

Roche has been approached by various governments in Asia regarding the production license of its antiviral Tamiflu drug to counter fight an onset of fight bird flu in the near future.

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