Millions Wasted On Flu Drug Report Claims

The UK government has spent £437m on Tamiflu, which is a drug classed by the World Health Organization as essential and which is stockpiled by governments globally to prepare for flu pandemics.

However, the Cochrane Collaboration has said the drug did not prevent the spread of flu or reduce dangerous complications and is only of a little benefit treating symptoms.

Nonetheless, Tamiflu manufacturers, the Roche company, and other experts say the analysis is flawed.

The UK government started to stockpiled Tamiflu since 2006 when some agencies were predicting that a pandemic of bird flu could kill up to 750.000 people in Britain and it spent £473m on the antiviral medicine and another £136m on the similar drug Relenza.

The Department of Health recognised that Britain is "one of the best prepared countries in the world for a potential flu pandemic" and said that the "stockpile of antivirals is a key part of this".

The report is the result of a fight for the publication of the previously hidden data into the effectiveness and side-effects of Tamiflu because drug companies do not publish all their research data.

The report authors said that drugs as paracetamol could have similar impact reducing the flu symptoms persistence from 7 to 6.3 days in adults and 5.8 in children and also said there was "no visible effect" preventing pneumonia developing or other complications.

The report's authors also pointed out a number of side-effects, saying that "there is no credible way these drugs could prevent a pandemic."

Despite the inquiry's conclusions the pharmaceutical company Roche said that they, "disagree with the overall conclusions" and claim it could have "serious public health implications".

The UK Department of Health said Britain "will consider the Cochrane review closely" while the World Health Organization said they "welcome a new rigorous analysis of available data, and look forward to consideration of its findings after appears".

(CVS/MH)