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Ministry Orders 100,000 Packets of Relenza

DUBAI — The Ministry of Health has ordered for 100,000 packets of Relenza, one of the two drugs found effective in treating swine originated H1N1 influenza A that has spread to at least
21 countries.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) and the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have said that Roche’s Tamiflu (oseltamivir) and GlaxoSmithKlines’ Relenza (zanamivir) are successful in helping treat the virus if taken within two days of having H1N1 flu symptoms.

Both of them work by blocking a protein on the surface of influenza particles called neuraminidase which allows the virus to spread from infected cells to other cells in the body.

Khaleej Times was the first to report that the UAE has a stockpile of 5 million capsules of Tamiflu, one million in Dubai alone. These can be used for treating 500,000 patients. Though Minister of Health Humaid Mohammed Obaid Al Quttami also made this announcement later, no information has been made public yet about the ministry’s stock on Relenza.

Though ministry officials were unavailable for comments on Tuesday, the General Manager of Al Baker Trading, the sole distributor for the medicine in the UAE, Dr Hany Sokar told Khaleej Times that the Ministry of Health (MoH) made the bulk order for Relenza for stockpiling the medicine as a precautionary measure against an outbreak of swine flu in the country.

He explained that the order was not for handing over the available stock in the market, but for exporting
fresh consignments.

“The Ministry has officially requested for 100, 000 packs of Relenza, which should be enough for treating same number of patients as the leaflet says one packet is enough for one person.

“They (MoH officials) want us to give a quotation for this in order to ship the medicine directly from the manufacturing factory,” he said.

Dr Sokar said the ministry officials recently asked the company to provide the details of the current stock, how much of them have been sold already and regular updates of the market situation. “They have also asked us to monitor the sale of the product in the market. We have to notify the MoH about the orders that we have received and get their approval for that.”

Similar to the trend of frenzied buying of Tamiflu, some local pharmacies said there has been an increase in the demand for Relenza also during the past few weeks. Some of them said they were already out of stock.

However, Dr Sokar said the product was still available though the public perception that Relenza can be used as a prophylaxis and treatment for swine flu has seen a rush for the medicine.

“It is true there is an increase in the demand from both private individuals and companies.

“Some companies’ medical officers have made bulk order. But we have the product available in
our stock .”

Tamiflu capsules have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of uncomplicated influenza in patients one year and older. Available in a powder format to be inhaled through the mouth using a plastic device, Relenza is approved for adults and children aged above
seven years.

Fears of a global influenza outbreak sparked by the H5N1 strain of avian flu had prompted governments around the world to store millions of courses of Tamiflu and Relenza.

However, concerns about resistance to Tamiflu have recently prompted governments to try combination of antiviral drugs including Relenza and others.

A recent international report said that government orders for Relenza were 20 per cent more than those for Tamiflu in the first quarter of 2009 following some reports of resistance of H1N1 to Tamiflu.

The latest figures from healthcare marketing consultants SDI show that more than a quarter-million prescriptions for Tamiflu pills alone were filled at retail US pharmacies in the week ending last Friday.

That was about 34 times the number of Tamiflu prescriptions filled the week before, said an AP report.

SDI data also shows prescriptions for Relenza jumped to nearly 14,000, ten times higher than the prior week.


sajila@khaleejtimes.com