Roche churns out more Tamiflu

23rd Jul 2009 12:08

Switzerland's Roche has ramped up production of Tamiflu as the swine flu pandemic spreads fear around the world.The drugs giant said sales of Tamiflu rocketed by 200% in the first six months of the year and plans to produce about 400 million packs a year by the start of 2010. Roche sold 1bn Swiss francs (£567m) of the anti-viral treatment during the period, but net profit still sank 29% to 4.1bn Swiss francs (£2.3bn) due to financing costs linked to its takeover of Genentech. Back in March, the Swiss firm paid $46.8bn for the 45% of San Francisco-based Genentech it didn't already own.Yesterday, British rival GlaxoSmithKline said it will more than triple its production of its own swine flu treatment Relenza.It expects to have an annual production capacity of 190m treatment courses of the drug, up from 60m recently. Roche posted a 9% hike in half-year sales to 24bn Swiss francs (£13.6bn) and chief executive Severin Schwan told reporters he expects Tamiflu to be "a sustainable franchise as we go forward in the long term".