Their comments came as GSK confirmed that it had signed a...

Their comments came as GSK confirmed that it had signed a contract to provide 1.7m treatments of Relenza to the German government in a deal believed to be worth about Pounds 17m.

The company is also believed to have sold stocks to the French government and is in discussions with other national health authorities and the World Health Organisation.

Relenza, developed as an inhaled powder to treat seasonal flu, has until now been little exploited by the company, in part because of complications in its use by patients suffering from asthma.

Last year GSK reported sales of just Pounds 3m on the product. That contrasts with very strong growth for Roche for its Tamiflu, which reported Dollars 460m (Euros 372m, Pounds 257m) in sales for the first half of this year alone. It has sold stockpiles to more than 25 countries.

Roche is coming under growing pressure to increase its existing donations to the WHO to help supply to poorer nations at risk of a pandemic.

Yesterday, Francisco Duque, the health secretary of the Philippines, said Roche's monopoly over Tamiflu was "bordering on the immoral", suggesting that rival drugs companies should be allowed to produce the patented medicine more cheaply.

In a blow to Roche and GSK, the academics in the Lancet warned: "The ethics of maintaining patents in a potential worldwide catastrophe is questionable." They stressed the need for studies comparing the effectiveness of the two drugs.



Andrew Jack in London