Tamiflu suspended due to stockpiling

The Swiss laboratory Roche Holding AG temporarily suspended deliveries to the United States of their medication against the influenza flue, Tamiflu, to avoid consumer stockpiling of inventories, fearing an outbreak of a world pandemic caused by bird flue.

Roche stated it detained deliveries of the medication to U.S. and Canadian pharmacies until the flue season begins, to prevent consumers from depleting supplies by stockpiling the drug in their homes.

The European Community announced the finding yesterday of a vaccine for humans against the H7N1 variant of the bird flue virus. In this project, called "Flupan", the European Community has invested 2.1 million euros.