Tamiflu

Gilead and Roche wrestled about the Tamiflu rights in the past. Gilead gave exclusive rights to the Swiss giant to make and sell Tamiflu in 1996. In April 2005, Roche reported that its first quarter sales of Tamiflu quadrupled to $330 million. The demand for the antiviral pill escalated so swiftly that Roche could no longer keep up with it, and has planned to set-up another production plant this fall.

In its SEC filing, Gilead claimed that "Roche failed to manufacture Tamiflu consistent with its contractual obligations. By failing to promote Tamiflu, a product with important public health benefits, which has the potential of saving many lives, is not reaching those in need. This has materially compromised public health."

As always, the debate is about public health, about people, civilians and not about the vast amount of profit that is made out of Tamiflu. And it is not surprising that Rummy was the CEO of Gilead once upon a time. As always it is all about liberation of a country, about fighting against a common enemy, against terrorism, diseases, etc, etc.

I have added the image of google trends search on Tamiflu. The 2005 peak on Tamiflu is pretty apparent. I do not know about the current debate on Tamiflu between Gilead Sciences and Roche. However, history repeats it self. Now, we have the enemy swineflu in 2009 and the name "Tamiflu" pops up bigger than ever.

Terrorists-Wanted:

Birdflu (2003-2005)
Swineflu (2009- )