When Tamiflu Stock Expires
The Canadian emergency stockpile consists of about fourteen million doses, or enough drugs to assist roughly 1.4 million persons. The antiviral Relenza makes up slightly less than thirty percent of that supply. The plan is to add a further two million doses this year. The purchase will consist of more amantadine and zanamivir.
The issue of expiring medications must also be addressed. Some stockpiled medicine has already expired and will continue to do so over time. Expiration policies are in effect now and those agencies responsible are working their plans. In the Canadian emergency stockpile – the smaller stored amount – available drugs that are expiring would be able to treat over a quarter million people and need to be replaced sometime in 2010–2011. Expiration strategies include extending the shelf life of tamiflu.
Oseltamivir was marketed with a shelf life of 5 years initially, but the manufacturer apparently can back up claims with data that shows the potency levels remaining active after seven years. Roche has also told governments that they can reclaim their expired stocks of tamiflu. Roche says they have the capability to remove the main compound and after ensuring it is still viable, they can then reconstitute it into capsule form.
It has been said that this procedure is the same as resetting the time clock of the medication and there is no indication of what this procedure would entail or cost but that it would amount to considerable savings on the cost of buying new drug supplies.