OT - Your National Security President - Too slow again

Good Job Georgie-boy. Always talking (or vacationing) when you should be
doing something.

http://nytimes.com/2005/10/07/politics/07flu.html

October 7, 2005
After Delay, U.S. Faces Line for Flu Drug
By GARDINER HARRIS
As concern about a flu pandemic sweeps official Washington, Congress and the
Bush administration are considering spending billions to buy the influenza
drug Tamiflu. But after months of delay, the United States will now have to
wait in line to get the pills.

Had the administration placed a large order just a few months ago, Roche,
Tamiflu's maker, could have delivered much of the supply by next year,
according to sources close to the negotiations in both government and
industry.

As the months passed, however, other countries placed orders that largely
exhausted Roche's production capacity this year and next.

Democrats on Capitol Hill are complaining that the delay has put Americans
in jeopardy. "The administration has just drug its feet through this whole
process," said Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, who has pressed for
legislation to buy more courses of Tamiflu. A course includes enough pills
for a full treatment.

Senator Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois, said in an interview that
Michael O. Leavitt, the secretary of health and human services, told
senators in a closed-door briefing last week that the administration would
soon place an order to raise the government's Tamiflu stockpile to 81
million courses - up from 12 million to 13 million courses expected by the
end of 2006. Mr. Obama has long been urging the government to buy more
Tamiflu.

"Secretary Leavitt admitted that they are currently in negotiations with
Roche to try to rapidly build up those stockpiles," Mr. Obama said. "But
we're behind countries like Great Britain, France and Japan, and it's
probably going to cost us a lot more money than it would have to catch up."

In an interview on Tuesday, Mr. Leavitt said that the government would buy
more Tamiflu although he did not specify how much.

"But it's not a surrogate for preparation," he said. "It's like saying that
if we could get everyone in America to wear seat belts, we would solve auto
accidents. It's part of a comprehensive solution."

Christina Pearson, a spokeswoman for Mr. Leavitt, said she could not confirm
whether the Bush administration had a new goal of buying the 81 million
courses.

Mr. Leavitt said the Bush administration planned to prepare for a possible
influenza pandemic by strengthening both international and domestic disease
surveillance programs, buying drugs like Tamiflu and investing in research
to develop alternative methods of making flu vaccines.

Preparing the vaccines usually takes nine months and involves the eggs of
thousands of chickens. Because chickens themselves could be wiped out in a
pandemic, the present system of manufacturing vaccines is highly vulnerable.

Introduced in 1999, Tamiflu for years had disappointing sales and received
little attention. But just as Bayer's antibiotic Cipro became wildly popular
in the wake of the 2001 anthrax attacks, Tamiflu has become the drug of
choice for those worried about pandemic flu because it is one of the only
medicines proven to reduce the duration and severity of the potentially
deadly disease if taken within 48 hours of infection.

Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster
Preparedness at Columbia University, is among those who have been insisting
for months that the government buy more Tamiflu. But he said the Bush
administration largely ignored his and others' warnings.

"And now that they're finally worked up about it, the store is closed," Dr.
Redlener said, referring to Roche's supply problems. "The U.S. is now in
line behind much of the rest of the world."

Terence Hurley, a Roche spokesman, said that 40 countries had ordered
Tamiflu to fill medical stockpiles in case of a pandemic. Many countries in
Europe - including France, Britain, Finland, Norway and Switzerland - have
ordered enough to treat 20 percent to 40 percent of their populations. The
American stockpile would treat less than 2 percent of the population.

Mr. Hurley said that Roche would be able to deliver all the courses that the
United States government has currently ordered, including at least two
million courses ordered this year.

Asked how soon the company could produce 68 million more courses if the
United States placed such an order, Mr. Hurley refused to say. "We're just
going to have to see what their demands are," Mr. Hurley said. The suggested
81 million courses would cover more than a quarter of the population.

The government and industry officials, however, said that Roche had
committed to delivering seven million courses to the United States next year
and would not be able to deliver substantially more until 2007.

Since 1997, avian flu strains have killed millions of birds in nearly a
dozen countries. But so far, nearly all of the people infected - more than
100 so far, including some 60 who died - got the sickness directly from
birds. Until the virus passes easily among humans, it is unlikely to cause a
pandemic that could kill millions.

An outbreak, therefore, may still be years away or may never occur. But news
this week that the 1918 flu virus, which killed at least 50 million
worldwide, was also a form of avian flu raised concerns further.

On Thursday, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, and
Senator Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas, introduced a bill that would
bolster defenses against the flu.



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