From just a few weeks ago. Direct from the HHS in the United States, the inside scoop.I have summarised a million pages for you. Feel free to check the rest.
Once BTA made a price sensitive announcment when it was confirmed the USA was giving relenza 20% split. Now its 50% confirmed.
''Because of that we moved to change the policy from an 80-20 ratio to a 50-50, because we had not seen significant resistance to the zanamivir product Relenza. However, when we bought antivirals, the first one was still an 80-20. As we've gone on through the summer that has been delivered. And so the federal stockpile has been replenished.''
"I cannot give the numbers out because we are in procurement sensitivity right now."
''As we've gone forward the secretary signed a memo recommended by the agencies within the department to buy more based on the actions we had before. And that was that we needed to move forward with a more balanced or 50-50 ratio of these two drugs. So we will be going out soon with purchases of more zanamivir.''
''The manufacturers have been producing at full capacity, and have expanded that capacity throughout the summer, and will continue to produce these.''
''So that is looking very, very promising, and there are other drugs which we are now considering funding as we go forward. We have a solicitation of received proposals to move forward with not only for new types of drugs but also combination therapies''
''And the last point is that some of these drugs that are given intravenously may be available sooner than several years from now under emergency uses authorization''
''Now of course the predominant virus in the U.S. since April by far has been the 2009 H1N1 viruses. Those viruses are all sensitive to Zanamivir that we've tested. Of -- and that is going on 1,000 different specimens that are tested so far. Over 99 percent of those 2009 H1N1s are susceptible to Oseltamivir. We have also seen Tamivir resistance in a few instances, as have some other countries.''
''Now with regard to influenza and children, or influenza and seriously hospitalized adults, we can make available parenteral antivirals for treatment. The two that are currently available under an emergency IND are IV zanamivir, and IV Peramivir.''