Expanded Sales Of Generic Tamiflu Blocked In India
The Government of India presently will only allow the sale and dispensing of the medication Oseltamivir through hospitals and health clinics. The manufacturers of generic tamiflu have made inquiries to the Indian establishment looking for permission to sell low cost generic tamiflu antiviral medication in pharmacies and other outlets as a means to increase access to the drug should there be an outbreak of influenza in the country.
Complaining of the rights of those requiring the medication but may be in the right place at the wrong time such as private health care facilities, these are the people who may have a difficult time getting hold of the drug. The government of India has not allowed access to oseltamivir through any other means than via hospitals and approved clinics and they restrict the sale of tamiflu through drug outlets and pharmacies that may be attached to private health care provider hospitals.
The short story is that drug companies may only supply their oseltamivir straight to the government itself or to government operated hospitals. The procedure required to sell drugs to the government is a complicated matter. Drug companies must wade through a tendering progression. This tendering regimen still does not guarantee that the bid proposed will be accepted. For this main reason, the drug manufacturers feel that in a crisis there will be unnecessary impediments to securing these medications. Drug makers feel that everyone has the right to easy access to important medications in an emergency situation.
Oseltamivir manufacturer Cipla, a principal generic oseltamivir manufacturer based in India has only just made known it will provide 1.5 million doses of oseltamivir four to six weeks from the time it has been ordered. Health officials meanwhile claim that allowing the supply of generic tamiflu in other retail outlets and stores could lead to extreme stockpiling of the medication and its eventual abuse.
The industry experts contest this bent logic stating that this type of thing could not occur with H1N1 influenza A [or swine flu]. They say there could be the chance of panic purchasing even from people who are not at risk, though they think this outcome is improbable. What this simply means is that any holdups to obtaining the antiviral drug would only make the circumstances worse. Oseltamivir is an antiviral that can be an effective prophylactic medication and prevent the spreading of both influenza A and B so it is critical that the drug be administered within forty eight hours of exposure to infection, or being infected, to be assured of an effectual result.
Oseltamivir – tamiflu is a neuraminidase inhibitor and works as a transition-state analogue inhibitor of influenza neuraminidase, thwarting progeny virions from emerging from infected cells.
The Indian Government has flatly refused permission to sell the drug in any retail environment and maintains it will continue to only be dispensed via government hospitals and health clinics. The drug oseltamivir was patented by Swiss drug maker Roche and Roche’s patent application was turned down by Indian authorities following an opposition grant filed by Cipla and several Non Governmental organizations.
Drug maker Cipla has actively been selling oseltamivir country wide in India since it received the marketing go ahead from the Indian Drug Tsar – Drug Controller General of India – in early January 2006. To effectively fight this, Roche legalized tech licensing agreements with Hyderabad based Hetero drugs so they could manufacture and distribute tamiflu in several rising countries, counting India.
The plan to warehouse oseltamivir supplies in India saw the government tender out bids from local tamiflu drug manufacturers based in India. Several high profile drug makers produced bids; the Ministry of Health awarded the contract to Hetero Drugs, the very company licensed by Roche to make oseltamivir in India.
It appears that the Indian Patent Office turning down Roche’s patent attempt did not have any effect on licensed manufacturing at all. The market appears open to any and every generic drug makers across the board. The problem of open access to the tamiflu drug though is not going away.