potentially big news, page-4

I don't think you can take too much from this article. What Dr Johnstone says is true, "they may or may not work" in a pandemic. But they are better than nothing. I tend to agree that it will be very difficult with the piddly amount of courses that we have at present to do much.

The projected pandemic will probably be unstoppable when it starts. People can have no symptoms for days and be shedding virus. We need mass prophylaxis as our only hope, that is, the majority of people in the majority of countries taking prophylactic meds. That is, we need billions of courses. Impossible? Not at all!

LANI or dimeric zanamivir (call it "Super Relenza" if you like) actually gives us that level of capacity. Developed by Sankyo/Biota, it has 100-1000 times the antiviral potency of normal Relenza. And it only needs to be taken once a week! Based on 10 mg bd x 5 days = 1 course relenza, and considering we may need as little as 10 micrograms/dose, we only have to do the dimeric thing to the equivalent of 100,000 Relenza courses (10 kg) and we have ONE BILLION DOSES: we can protect the Earths entire population for 1 week with 60 kgs of the stuff!