Kimia Farma eyes Tamiflu retail operations

Kimia Farma eyes Tamiflu retail operations

Phelim Kyne, Dow Jones/Jakarta

Indonesian pharmaceutical firm Kimia Farma will lobby the
government to consider lifting a ban on retail sales of the H5N1
avian influenza drug Tamiflu, a senior executive said.

Kimia Farma, which is 90 percent state-owned, already has a
small stockpile of Tamiflu that it had hoped to market through
its nationwide chain of 320 retail outlets, Managing Director
Gunawan Pranoto told Dow Jones Newswires on Friday.

However, the sales plans are on hold now after the government
said on Thursday that only 44 state hospitals will be allowed to
distribute Tamiflu.

"I want to contact the director general of (Indonesia's)
Center for Disease Control and the health minister to see if
hopefully we can provide Tamiflu in (our) pharmacies," Pranoto
said.

He added that the company, which also produces 250 generic and
herbal medications for domestic consumption, hopes the Ministry
of Health will reconsider its decision to limit the sale of
Tamiflu to improve consumer safety and convenience.

Tamiflu is Swiss pharmaceutical firm Roche Holding AG's
branded formula of the drug Oseltamivir, which has shown promise
in treating avian flu in humans.

Kimia Farma's Tamiflu distribution aspirations reflect how
businesses are responding to heightening public concern about the
potential health threat posed by H5N1.

The health ministry said on Thursday that the country has
recorded four confirmed human H5N1 infection cases since July,
including three confirmed fatalities. Those deaths have
contributed to a total of at least 62 human deaths from the
illness in the region since 2003.

International health authorities caution that Indonesia rivals
Vietnam and Cambodia as a potential weak link in the global
effort to prevent or contain a possible future outbreak of a more
deadly human variant of H5N1.

Java and Bali have high and extremely dense chicken
populations that make growth in human H5N1 cases inevitable, WHO
Representative for Indonesia Georg Petersen said last month.

Demand for Tamiflu in Indonesia already exists. Numerous
Jakarta-based foreign corporations are preparing stockpiles for
their staff to prevent disruptions in their operations in the
event that H5N1 becomes a human epidemic.

"I think that many people and companies are looking at having
Tamiflu or getting a source of it if it gets to the point of
being a threat to humans," a Jakarta-based western diplomat told
reporters on Thursday.

Pranoto said consumer access to Tamiflu through retail
pharmacy outlets would help ensure rapid distribution of the drug
in case of possible human H5N1 infections.

"Tamiflu is effective only one or two days after the person
has flu symptoms," he said.

"If we can provide (Tamiflu) in our outlets...it would be part
of our social mission to allow consumer access to this product."