Roche will provide technical know-how to assist Aspen in the production and registration of the generic product, and also supply the active pharmaceutical ingredient to the African company.
“We are pleased to announce the partnership with Aspen as the latest step in our scale-up efforts to meet the needs of governments in preparing for the potential public health threat posed by avian influenza,” commented David Reddy, Roche's pandemic taskforce leader.
Roche has received orders and letters of intent for Tamiflu from over 75 governments around the world for pandemic stockpiling and is fulfilling all orders according to an agreed upon schedule.
By working with third parties Roche has substantially increased the production of Tamiflu. The company says that it is in a position to produce 400 million treatments annually by the end of this year.
Additional sub-licensing agreements for the production of Tamiflu have been granted to companies in China and India.