MPs criticise government's stockpiling of Roche drug Tamiflu
(Reuters) - MPs on Friday criticised government spending of 424 million pounds to stockpile Roche's medicine Tamiflu, saying doubts about the drug's effectiveness suggest it may not be money well spent.
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Tamiflu has been approved by regulators worldwide and is stockpiled by many governments in case of a global flu outbreak. Sales of the drug hit close to $3 billion in 2009, due to the H1N1 swine flu pandemic, although they have since declined.
But some researchers claim there is little evidence Tamiflu works and have lobbied since 2009 for Swiss drugmaker Roche to hand over all its data from clinical trials of the medicine.
After a lengthy fight, Roche agreed last year that it would hand over the data to outside researchers at the Cochrane Collaboration, a non-profit group that reviews trial data to assess the value of drugs.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/01/03/uk-roche-tamiflu-britain-idUKBREA0200B20140103
