potentially big news, page-3

It is correct to say that there have not been any FDA-approved trials of either Tamiflu or Relenza against bird flu. See my recent post with links to the Relenza trials. In field trials it appears Tamiflu has little effect against H5N1 when administered within 48 hours of the onset of symptoms and so Roche suggested doubling dosage and time. There has been effectively no Relenza available to treat anyone in field trials as yet. Remember GSK did not even make any for several years! However, and this is of critical importance, zanamivir inhibited viral replication of H5N1 at the same rate as H3N2 (normal flu) when tested on the isolates from the sick and dying patients. Tamiflu did not work on several of the isolates. Tamiflu also suppressed some of the virus in patients while having no effect on other components with a different sequence. It was this overgrowth of minor viral components in the overall isolate that induces the spread of resistance strains. Remember, zanamivir worked equally well on all the components in the isolates.

After all it was designed to fit while Tamiflu was designed to sell!