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.