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Tamiflu: Drugs
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Tamiflu is an influenza drug that was developed and patented by Gilead Sciences. In 1996 Gilead reached an agreement with Roche to allow the company to manufacture and market the drug. [1]
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Tamiflu is a drug with generic name of Oseltamivir. It is a drug belonging to the family of antivirals. Anti-virus drugs such as Tamiflu are used to treat diseases that are caused by viruses ... the name antiviral.
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The risk that Tamiflu will promote a resistant virus comes from the drug's excreted metabolite, oseltamivir carboxylate (OC), which is in fact the active antiviral. Up to 80% of ingested Tamiflu is excreted as OC in urine and feces. OC withstands degradation through sewage treatment and for several weeks afterward. Birds drinking water from catchments contaminated with OC would ingest the antiviral, which would inhibit nonresistant viruses in the birds' digestive systems while enabling resistant viruses to proliferate. Birds excreting the resistant virus would spread the strain among other waterfowl at the same body of water.
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Sales of Tamiflu have skyrocketed recently as the maker's of the drug ran out of stock. This has created a battle for the rights to the pill's profits between two large drug companies in the midst of a potential shortage. Third world countries threaten to produce generic versions of the drug and ignore U.S. patents while wealthy countries joust for position in the ever-expanding line to buy supplies for national stockpiles. People looking to buy Tamiflu should do so soon rather than wait and risk a shortage.
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Previous studies have shown that Tamiflu is unusually resistant to being broken down in the body – about 80% of it is excreted in its active form. The drug ... dissolves readily in water, and is not broken down in sewage sludge or by common chemical reactions in nature.
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Tamiflu resistance has been documented in one previous study -- that of a Vietnamese girl who had taken the drug while healthy in a failed bid to prevent infection with the same virus that had afflicted her family. She was sickened by a resistant strain, but fully recovered.
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