Some points for you to consider:1 Relenza and Tamiflu have been...

Some points for you to consider:

1 Relenza and Tamiflu have been used very rarely by doctors in flu outbreaks in Australia up to now. In fact, a lot of chemists never carried stock of either drug, as they found that the stock they had often expired due to a lack of prescriptions by doctors. The mainstay of flu prevention worldwide to date has been the flu vaccine.

2. Relenza and Tamiflu have had success in treating Avian flu. Now some resistance has been proven to tamiflu. As such, it is not unreasonable to expect similar resistance to Relenza developing sooner than later, as they both derive from a common radicle.

3. The question that has to be addressed is what happens to the virus resistance if the H5N1 virus and the common flu virus combine and mutate to form a new virus. The new virus, if it develops, could be sensitive to both medications or it could be resistant to one or both. The new viral particle could well not be resistant to Tamiflu or Relenza. On the other hand, it could rapidly develop resistance to either drug.
Therefore it is imperative that a vaccine is developed, and once this is developed, the vaccine will be the mainstay of prophylaxis, as far as doctors are concerned.

4, Lani is being touted as a once weekly wonder drug. That remains to be seen. Remember that the wonder drug Vioxx was withdrawn soon after release after the observation of a lot of unexpected adverse reactions.

5. Remember that when we deal with the normal flu, we are dealing with an everchanging virus, for which a new flu vaccine has to be developed on a yearly basis. I would expect the same sort of behavior from Avian Flu and this virus could very well become resistant to the available drugs. So don't get carried away with the emergence of some resistance to Tamiflu, because cross resistance can develop to Relenza.

6. Posting lots of reports from newspapers etc on this site does not change any of the above, and this is just a timely reminder to anyone who thinks different.

7 Hopefully this viral threat does not develop. It can disappear as fast as SARS did in 2003, which was in a matter of months. In that case, demand for both drugs goes right down again.

8. If avian flu does develop, then we will all have a lot more to worry about than the price of shares. I also feel that in a real pandemic, all markets will suffer a worldwide slump. I do hope this eventuality does not come about