Pharma companies donate tamiflu

NEW DELHI: The Indian arm of Swiss pharma major Hoffmann-La Roche and Hyderabad-based Hetero Drugs have together donated one lakh dosages of Tamiflu medicine, the drug used to treat the H1N1 flu, to government authorities.

Roche on Thursday donated 50,000 dosages that can treat an equal amount of swine flu patients to the state government of Maharashtra.

Hetero Drugs had last month donated 50,000 generic or low cost version of Tamiflu dosages for children to the central government.

Roche has the global marketing rights for the drug, developed by US company Gilead Sciences. The Swiss company in turn entered into a manufacturing agreement with Hetero Drugs to produce low cost version of the drug in India.