Government gets OK to produce Tamiflu

Government gets OK to produce Tamiflu

Agencies, Jakarta

The government has received permission from Swiss drug giant Roche Holding AG to locally manufacture the anti-viral drug Tamiflu to treat people infected with the deadly bird flu virus.

"Earlier today, we received Roche's reply, which allows us to start producing Tamiflu locally. The process to obtain raw materials for the drug from Korea is already underway," Minister of Health Siti Fadillah Supari told AFP on Friday.

She did not provide further details but said the go-ahead to produce Tamiflu would "greatly benefit our fight against" the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu, which has so far been confirmed as killing seven Indonesians.

"The drug is known to be the most effective medicine against H5N1, it would be a sin for us if we are not prepared," Supari was quoted by Bloomberg as saying. "We are in the process of importing raw materials and are looking at either China or South Korea."

One of the most crucial raw materials for making Tamiflu is shikimic acid, which is extracted from the Chinese spice, star anise, which has been in short supply.

The minister announced late Thursday that the government had appointed state-run pharmaceutical company Kimia Farma as Indonesia's domestic Tamiflu producer.

"The Ministry of Health has sent a letter to Roche for a license (for Kimia) to produce Tamiflu in Indonesia," the company's managing director, Gunawan Pranoto, told Dow Jones.

Roche's spokeswoman said Indonesia could make Tamiflu without its license because the drug -- used to treat avian influenza -- is not protected by a patent in the Southeast Asian nation.

"We've informed the government they can produce it for local use," Roche's spokeswoman Martina Rupp said in a telephone interview from Basel, Bloomberg reported. "Quality guidelines will have to be assured by the Indonesian government."

Tamiflu, also known as Oseltamivir, has shown promise in treating human infections of the H5N1 avian influenza virus.

Indonesia joins a growing list of third parties, including the governments of Taiwan and Vietnam, petitioning Zurich-based Roche to allow local production of the drug as fears grow of a worldwide pandemic. While all cases of avian flu have been traced to contact with birds, health experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that spreads easily from person to person.