It never ceases to surprise me what #$(*’s corporations can be. The threat of the Avian Flu keeps growing and Roche still hasn’t widely released the patent on Tamiflu, the one drug that could actually help. On their company website today is statement of third quarter results. In fact, they have a “strong” growth rate of 22%, in part because “Tamiflu sales show further significant growth, driven by orders for pandemic readiness supplies”. Well their shareholders should be very happy *sarcasm*
Tamiflu is the perfect money-making drug. It’s useful for flu treatment, as well as protection against getting the flu. “One pill protects you for one day. Based on the history of other pandemic influenzas, experts believe the first wave in a given area would last up to 100 days. So if you were trying to protect yourself from infection, you would need to stockpile about 100 doses of Tamiflu and start taking them from the moment you hear the virus is circulating in your region.” (Source) 100 doses costs roughly US$569 per person (+ shipping 
) through the online pharmacies. Protecting a family of four would work out to about $2,500. Roche can’t produce enough Tamiflu for every one, but it doesn’t matter since most people can’t afford a personal stockpile of the drug.
Luckily, the government of Canada has bought 23 million doses so far. That’s a good start at protecting Canada’s population of 32.3 million, assuming they are talking about 100 pill (or higher) doses. UPDATE 10/25/2005: They just said today that those doses will just cover 3.5 million people. I guess the rest of Canadians are just screwed Of course, that’s assuming that there are enough health-care workers to handle a pandemic. Our health system almost collapsed during SARS and that was a fairly confined outbreak.
I think India has the right idea. Cipla of Bombay has started producing a generic version of the drug despite the patents. Like any corporation, they are in it for the profit. But if that gives more people access to the drug, it’s better than nothing. No one would want their loved ones dying for principles alone. Other countries need to break that patent now and start mass-producing the drug. Roche has already begun to weaken their stance; why not force the issue before it’s too late to ramp up production? If the pandemic never comes, we can all talk about how silly we were. But if it does, we’ll be very glad we did.
TIME.com: Why Roche Released Tamiflu — Page 1
Why the sudden about-face? Roche probably had no choice. Most countries, including the U.S., have in their laws a provision that permits their governments to overturn patents in exceptional circumstances. “If Roche plays hardball,” says Redpath, “governments could just say, ‘we’re going to overturn the patent. This is a national emergency.’”