BIRD FLU IN INDIA

Apart from all these losses, the Indian government will have to spend in excess of Rs 50 billion to control the spread of bird flu. In such a situation, the projection of 8.1% GDP growth for the current fiscal year could get revised downward. However, experts believe that this will happen only if the bird flu persists for a longer time.

However, there are some people who have struck gold due to the mass shift of consumers toward chicken substitutes. Fish and meat sellers were reported to have been doing brisk business as demand for their products had shot up. Prices of fish and mutton have skyrocketed since the bird flu panic started.

Meanwhile, Indian pharma companies have geared themselves up to supply drugs in the event of a bird flu outbreak in India. The Swiss pharma major Roche holds the patent for the drug Tamiflu (Oseltamivir), which is believed to be the only drug effective against bird flu. Hyderabad-based Hetero Drugs had received the sub-license to produce the generic version of Tamiflu from Roche in December 2005. The demand for these drugs was expected to go up significantly.

Hetero Drugs had already supplied a total of 700,000 capsules (initially 500,000 capsules, followed by another consignment of 200,000 capsules) to the Indian government at a price of Rs 710 ($15) per strip of 10 capsules. M. Srinivas Reddy, Marketing Director of Hetero Drugs, said, “We have another one million capsules in the stock and this can be called in by the government at a very short notice.”^[1] He also said that the production capacity could be ramped up to 30 million capsules if required. Earlier, Roche had supplied 7,000 capsules of Tamiflu to the government.

Mumbai-based Cipla launched Antiflu, its generic version of Tamiflu. Cipla had even put it on the market at a whole sale price of Rs 650 per strip of ten capsules and a retail price of Rs 1000. Even Ranbaxy, India’s largest pharma company, announced that its API (active pharmaceutical ingredient) for Oseltamivir was ready and its formulations would be ready after the second quarter of 2006.

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^[1] “Indian drug makers gear up to combat bird flu,” http://www.newkerala.com/news2.php?action=fullnews&id=14133, February 22, 2006.

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