Focus: domestic pharmaceutical companies fight against avian influenza

Introduction: the 298 yuan box of Tamiflu used to be hidden in the counter of Shanghai Guoda pharmacy, but with the crisis of the bird flu epidemic, this small capsule to prevent and control bird flu has been snapped up around the world At the same time, the R & D and production boom around Tamiflu is also set off "If you want Tamiflu, wait until January next year." "at present, the drugstore can't buy it, and the company has no inventory." When the reporter called Tamiflu's only agent in Shanghai, Sinopharm holding Shanghai company, the head of Sinopharm told the reporter At present, there is no Tamiflu in each pharmacy counter of the National pharmacy chain If you really want Tamiflu, you have to wait until January next year, because then there will be new batches of drugs, the person said It is understood that the global production of Tamiflu in Roche is uniformly deployed by the headquarters in Switzerland According to tan Hanzhi, technical director of Shanghai Roche Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., at present, Shanghai Roche only conducts sub packaging of Tamiflu, because the subcontracting volume is determined according to the order, it is difficult to count the specific capacity According to the reporter, there are three antiviral drugs recommended by the Ministry of health for the prevention and treatment of influenza: amantadine, amantadine and oseltamivir (general name: Tamiflu) Among them, oseltamivir (Tamiflu) is the exclusive drug of Roche Who has recommended Tamiflu as the reserve drug for the government to deal with the possible influenza pandemic In China, Tamiflu has also been listed as the treatment drug in the treatment plan for human avian influenza In an interview with reporters, the head of Roche's public relations department quoted the results of a study: "Tamiflu is effective against H5N1 avian influenza virus, while traditional amantadine and amantadine are ineffective." However, Roche's PR department did not disclose the quantity of Tamiflu supplied to China and the possible stock quantity in society, but obviously, if we want to ensure that anti influenza drugs meet the needs of all people, the current stock is certainly not enough "At present, Tamiflu is in short supply all over the world, but we can be sure that it will never reduce China's inventory and may increase inventory from other places, but we don't know where it will be deployed," the person said In the third quarter, Tamiflu's sales doubled to chf279 million, according to Oriental Morning Post Roche's share price has risen more than 40% this year, driven by the good prospects of the drug Shanghai Pharmaceutical Group has started to apply for the production of Tamiflu, and we are now assisting them to contact the headquarters in Switzerland An insider, who declined to be named, told reporters It is understood that Roche has been reluctant to allow other manufacturers to participate in the production of Tamiflu due to the booming sales of Tamiflu However, with the aggravation of the avian influenza epidemic and increasing pressure from all parties, Roche has to initially release the production rights of Tamiflu, and start the system of accepting enterprise applications and Roche's "cooperative production" to expand production capacity "At present, Roche has agreed to authorize other factories to produce Tamiflu, and its headquarters in Switzerland has set up a special team to deal with relevant matters Any enterprise that wants to produce Tamiflu must apply to the headquarters and pass strict certification At present, we are assisting Shanghai Pharmaceutical to contact the headquarters." Said the person According to the reporter, after Roche released the production right of Tamiflu, galenika, a well-known pharmaceutical manufacturer in Serbia, has announced that it has obtained Roche's first production authorization in the world and will "start producing Tamiflu in a few days" If it is calculated according to the speed of "starting production in a few days", if the application for drug application is successful, it may also be put into production in a short period of time But industry insiders have a wait-and-see attitude towards the durability of the Tamiflu market "In fact, there are two problems in Tamiflu's expansion of production One is whether Roche is willing to be certified, and the other is whether Chinese enterprises are willing to apply." People familiar with the matter said In fact, the production of Tamiflu takes a lot of risk, because the scope of use of the drug is limited, if there is no bird flu, it means that one box can not be sold The construction of related production lines requires a huge investment "In addition, it may take 1 to 2 years for some applicants to transform or build new production lines, which is obviously unrealistic for the current tense market demand." The person said Therefore, even though there are many enterprises applying, there may not be many enterprises that have actually passed the examination and approval But Roche's statement said it was working with more and more partners to rapidly expand Tamiflu's productivity At present, more than 12 manufacturers around the world have joined the Tamiflu manufacturing network At the same time, Roche repeatedly stressed in the statement that the company is trying its best to improve the supply capacity of Tamiflu It is understood that Roche has taken the risk of producing Tamiflu at twice the rate before receiving the government's order By the middle of 2006, Roche's productivity will increase by 8-10 times [NextPage] domestic enterprises are more enthusiastic about vaccines In addition to authorized production, imitation is a shortcut to expand Tamiflu's production capacity Regarding Taiwan's claim that it can copy Tamiflu in a short time, Xu Chao, director of Shanghai Roche's public relations department, told reporters that Taiwan has indeed contacted Roche's headquarters and applied for authorization of production, but it has not yet been approved However, Tao Jianhong, deputy director of Nanfang Institute of pharmaceutical economics, told reporters that since Tamiflu is still within the patent protection period, if enterprises in Taiwan produce imitated Tamiflu without the authorization of Roche, they are bound to take the production route of avoiding patent However, the final efficacy of the drugs produced in this case is hard to say According to tan Hanzhi, technical director of Roche pharmaceutical in Shanghai, there are actually great differences between patent drugs and generic drugs due to various reasons such as production process and raw materials Many generic drugs can not achieve the effect of patent drugs However, in the choice between authorization and imitation, Chinese enterprises focus on vaccine research and development In addition, at present, the medical community has reached a consensus that the most effective way to control avian influenza is compulsory immunization with high-density injection vaccine Therefore, a large number of domestic immunization market provides a huge potential opportunity for enterprises with technological advantages and production capacity of avian influenza vaccine Animal husbandry Co., Ltd., the leading manufacturer of bird flu vaccine, said in an interview that at present, the company's production capacity of bird flu vaccine has exceeded 13 billion feathers, and the gross profit level of products is about 60%, which is a high-profit product The company will continue to increase the production of this product As one of the only influenza vaccine manufacturers in China, Shanghai Institute of biological products is also preparing to apply for the project of human avian influenza vaccine research According to the person in charge of the R & D Department of Shanghai Institute of biological products, Professor Chen Ze, a visiting researcher of the Institute and director of the Research Office of Wuhan Institute of viruses, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has drafted a letter of intent It is estimated that the laboratory cycle of human avian influenza vaccine is about two years However, Professor Chen said that it is difficult to predict the time period for the human avian influenza vaccine to be launched as soon as possible Chen Ze said that at present, countries all over the world are competing to study human avian influenza vaccine, but they have not yet succeeded Therefore, China should step up vaccine research and development, and stand on the same line with foreign countries, so as to supply large-scale vaccine for China as soon as possible when the development of the epidemic needs Related reports vaccine manufacturers were unprepared to see the price of octagons rise as scientists proposed that the drug Tamiflu contains octagons, the price of octagons in China also rose Different from the flu vaccine, because British scientists have pointed out that the ingredients in Tamiflu are extracted from octagons from China, the spice, which was originally not impressive, is now "worth more" "This information led to the rise of octagonal market." Guangxi Wuzhou modern agricultural information center staff told reporters that a large part of China's octagons are produced in Wuzhou, and from their data released recently, the price of octagons has risen to about 4 yuan, an increase of about 0.5 yuan According to their analysis, this price will rise In the past, the supply of Bajiao in Wuzhou exceeded the demand The growers had to find their own channels to sell, but now it's different Every day, customers post purchase information on the "China Bajiao net" hosted by them As far as he knows, there are also some pharmaceutical enterprises, but he is not clear about the specific use of these enterprises after buying back octagons According to relevant data, according to the current price increase, the income per household of Bajiao growers in Wuzhou will probably increase by more than 600 yuan.