relenza for japan (update)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=ai5biLdCcD9k&refer=japan


Japan to Double Anti-Flu Drug Stockpile for Pandemic (Update1)


By Kanoko Matsuyama

Nov. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Japan plans to almost double its stockpile of anti-flu drugs in case of a pandemic that could kill millions of people worldwide, the government said.

The country will hold medicine for 45 percent of its 128 million people from 23 percent now, according to guidelines by the Cabinet Office, the ministry of health and other ministries. No timeframe was provided to boost the stockpile.

Governments and the World Health Organization are stockpiling medicines in case of an avian influenza pandemic in humans. A flu pandemic could kill 71 million people worldwide and lead to a ``major global recession'' costing more than $3 trillion, according to a worst-case scenario outlined by the World Bank last month.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc's Relenza will account for about 10 percent of Japan's supplies and the government will also consider using drugs under development, Yoshinori Ito, a counselor at the Cabinet Office, told journalists in Tokyo today.

Emerging resistance to Roche Holding AG's Tamiflu, also known by its chemical name oseltamivir, has led governments to consider Relenza as an option for reserves. Japan held Tamiflu for 28 million people as of March, and has Relenza for 1.35 million.

The medicines offer a defense against the H5N1 strain of avian flu that has infected at least 387 people in 15 countries in the past five years, killing 63 percent of them.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kanoko Matsuyama in Tokyo at [email protected].

Last Updated: November 27, 2008 23:51 EST