22.12.2005

Two Vietnamese patients infected with avian influenza died after developing a resistance to Tamiflu. Doctors, in the report published in the New England Journal of Medicine, studied eight Vietnamese patients who were given oseltamivir, the anti-influenza medicine marketed as Tamiflu by F. Hoffman-La Roche Ltd., a Basel, Switzerland, pharmaceutical company.
Two of the patients, who died, developed a resistance to the drug.
One patient, a 13-year-old girl, died seven days after getting the virus, despite being put on the recommended Tamiflu dosage one day after showing symptoms, the report said.
The company plans to conduct clinical trials with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the World Health Organization to see whether a higher dosage of Tamiflu would be more effective against severe influenza, which includes the avian influenza strain seen in Southeast Asia. Those studies are expected to start in February or March while Roche plans to release results of higher Tamiflu dosing tests on animals early next year, said spokesman Terry Hurley.