usa ordered $400 million relenza

Hi everyone,

Looking at the following article the USA has ordered $400 million worth of Relenza so far.

This will be another A$35 million of Royalties for Biota.

Does the market realise the huge increase in earnings Biota is going to have for the next couple of years?

Expect share in biota to sky rocket next week as the news start to filter thru....

jojo




U.S. Revises Flu Emergency Plan

EU Awaits Test Results
On Whether 3 Birds
Carried Deadly Strain
Associated Press
October 9, 2005 2:37 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- A superflu could kill up to 1.9 million Americans, according to a draft of the government's plan to fight a world-wide epidemic.

Separately, three ducks died of bird flu in Eastern Romania, authorities said late Friday, and Saturday, a dead swan found in the Black Sea port of Constanta similarly tested positive for bird flu.

Tests are being carried out in the U.K. to see whether the ducks carried the H5N1 strain of the virus, which officials fear could mutate and trigger a human flu epidemic.

U.S. Officials are rewriting their plan to designate not just who cares for the sick but who will keep the country running amid the chaos, said an influenza specialist who is advising the government on those decisions.

The Bush administration has spent the last year updating its plan for how to fight the next flu pandemic. While it is impossible to say when one will strike, the fear is that the bird flu in Asia could trigger one if it mutates to start spreading easily among people.

A recent draft of the plan models what might happen based on the last century's three pandemics. In a best-case scenario, about 200,000 people might die. But if the next pandemic resembles the bird-like 1918 Spanish flu, as many as 1.9 million could die, according to government adviser Michael Osterholm. Millions more would be ill, overwhelming hospitals.

The government has on hand enough of the anti-flu drug Tamiflu to treat 4.3 million people. Manufacturing of $400 million worth of a bird flu vaccine (Relenza) just began. The draft makes clear that tens of millions more doses of each would be needed. That is far more than the world has the capacity to manufacture quickly.

To finish that draft plan, federal health officials for several weeks have been role-playing what would happen if a superflu struck now -- not next year, after more medicines and vaccines have been stockpiled.

Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt recently met with Cabinet secretaries to get other federal agencies to determine their role in stemming rioting at vaccine clinics; when to close schools; how to keep gasoline, electricity, food and water supplies running; and how to manage the economic fallout. State health officers also are being asked for input, Mr. Osterholm said.

Meanwhile, the European Commission said it will wait for the outcome of test results on three Romanian ducks suspected to be infected with a dangerous strain of avian flu before deciding whether any action needs to be taken. Romanian officials said nearly 500 other birds have died or been killed and 2,000 birds died of the flu in Turkey as well.

"The samples need to be analyzed," said Philip Tod, EU Health and Consumer Protection spokesman. "Until we have those results, we cannot be sure whether this is avian influenza, or what sort of avian influenza it is."

Mr. Tod said the results of a biological analysis of the samples taken from the birds are expected to be known by Tuesday. He stressed that there were many types of avian influenza and many of these were mild. If the tests showed, however, the birds were infected with a strain that was dangerous for humans, action would be taken, he said. This could involve blocking imports of live poultry and poultry products from the affected country.

Some 460 new birds, including hens, ducks, swans, turkeys and geese were found dead or killed in recent days in Tulcea county, home to the Danube Delta marshlands, which are a destination for migrating birds, health and veterinary authorities said. Authorities did not immediately provide a breakdown of the deaths and killings. It was not immediately clear if all the birds had been tested for bird flu.

"A quarantine has been placed on all localities in Tulcea, and birds have been sacrificed," said Ion Agafitei, head of the national health and veterinary association. Some 730 people were given flu vaccines on Saturday against bird flu, the Health Ministry said.

Eight villages in the Danube Delta have been placed under strict quarantine.

Meanwhile, some 2,000 birds died overnight in Turkey of bird flu, CNN-Turk television reported. The birds belonged to a turkey farmer in a village near Balikesir in western Turkey, and the announcement was made by a provincial deputy governor who said that the transportation of animals into and out of the village was now forbidden, CNN-Turk reported.

In Russia, an outbreak of the virus has killed about 11,000 birds and prompted officials to slaughter 127,000 others to halt its spread. No human cases have been registered. Bird flu viruses pose no immediate threat to humans but they can mutate and spread to other animals and humans.

An outbreak in the Netherlands in 1999-2000 led to the destruction of 30 million chickens at an estimated economic cost of more than €150 million ($180 million), according to EU figures. In recent days, the Bush administration has said it plans to bolster vaccine production in the U.S., purchase huge quantities of antiviral drugs and lay out a detailed system to coordinate federal, state and local response efforts to a pandemic.

Increasingly, bird flu has stoked worries among world health officials of a global pandemic as it has devastated poultry flocks in Asia and begun spreading to migratory birds and humans. Since late 2003, more than 60 human deaths in Asia have been blamed on the current strain of the flu. Adding to the concerns, scientists this week said they had shown that the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic blamed for 50 million deaths had started among birds and then mutated and spread to humans.