With swine flu having made
a comeback and already begun to take its casualty toll in Vietnam, demand for
Tamiflu has increased greatly.

The management board at the Tropical Disease
Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City spoke on March 13 that the hospital needed more
Tamiflu medication in case the flu outbreak re-occurs.

Other hospitals also stated their need to
stockpile the drug to treat H1N1 patients.

While hospitals specified their need for the
special medicine, the Ministry of Health has not as yet taken a decision on use
of the 10 million expired Tamiflu tablets.

They need to decide whether to destroy the tablets altogether or recycle them to
draw out the Oseltamivir phosphate.

Four major domestic drug manufacturers and the
Ministry had wasted financial resources worth VND562-billion ($28.8 million) in
a project to store 20 million capsules of Oseltamivir (aka Tamiflu) in
2005-2006, to fight the avian flu epidemic.

Half of the 10 million tablets made by four
pharmaceutical companies, Phu Yen Medical Equipment and Pharmaceutical (Pymepharco),
Cuu Long Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Corporation (Pharimexco), Imexpharm
Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company and Stada Vietnam Company, have expired
though the pharmaceutical companies say that the expiry date can be extended to
2011.

While talking to Sai Gon Giai Phong, medical
researchers think that the expired 10 million Tamiflu tablets could be recycled
to recover oseltamivir phosphate from them instead of destroying them altogether
and wasting precious money.

VietNamNet/Saigon
Giai Phong