Roche allows Hetero to make Tamiflu

Hyderabad-based firm to start production in January.

The Hyderabad-based Hetero Drugs Ltd has got permission to produce Roche's anti-influenza drug Tamiflu.

The Swiss company's Oseltamivir drug-based brand Tamiflu has been used to treat bird flu.Hetero plans to start production from January.

Ranbaxy Laboratories, Nicholas Piramal and Cipla were also eyeing the licence.

"The agreement with Hetero is focused on providing Oseltamivir for government use and will have an immediate effect on its availability in India and other developing countries -- both directly and through further agreements with local companies," said a statement on Roche's website.

The company said Hetero was the first company to be able to speed up the agreed delivery time to the first half of 2006.

"The collaboration with Hetero will enhance the supply of Oseltamivir in some of the world's poorest countries, resulting in earlier than anticipated timelines and more capacity for orders," the statement said.

Hetero Drugs Chairman BPS Reddy said, "We have started the process and will begin production by the first week of January 2006."

He said the company hoped to earn Rs 100 crore from Tamiflu in the next year by exporting it to Third World countries. The company has a production capacity of 3 metric tonnes a day.

Over a week ago, Roche had officially declared that it had identified 12 potential partners.

Meanwhile, Cipla has gone ahead with manufacturing Oseltamivir and started selling it overseas.

"We asked them (Roche) about the patent status of the drug and they haven't responded to our queries. If there is no patent, where is the question of requiring the licence? We have begun manufacturing the drug," said Amar Lulla, joint managing director, Cipla.

Hetero met the criteria that Roche defined in terms of technical ability, capacity and the speed of bringing the capacity on stream.

Hetero is obliged to respect Roche's intellectual property as well as that of Gilead's, which invented the drug.