DMAI would not worry about the Government interferring with the...

DMA

I would not worry about the Government interferring with the patent.

The purpose of the patent is to ensure that the IP owner gets initial rewards before the margin of the unit cost drops. In the case of Relenza, the margin has already dropped for the Government orders. You can see the heavy discount for the government orders compare to regular price for Relenza.

Another consideration is the limitation of the starting material, if you have different manufacturers starting bidding for the starting material, the cost will go up and would have to be passed on to the Government without achieving a larger quantity of the finished material.

Yet, another consideration, its manufacturing capability as well you need to factor in, not everyone can manufacture it, you need to have a licence under FDA (US) and TGA (Aus), and that requires GMP compliance.

Cheers