MPs criticise government's stockpiling of Roche drug Tamiflu

[riky]

MPs criticise government's stockpiling of Roche drug Tamiflu

<p><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/uk-lawmakers-criticise-govt-39-stockpiling-roche-drug-000852576--business.html"><img src="http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/c8XF4BY7wJjnfAV3tV.LZQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTg2O3E9NzU7dz0xMzA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2014-01-03T000852Z_1_CBREA0200F700_RTROPTP_2_ALEXION-ROCHE.JPG" width="130" height="86" alt="File of the logo of the Swiss drugmaker Roche is seen on a factory in Burgdorf" align="left" title="File of the logo of the Swiss drugmaker Roche is seen on a factory in Burgdorf" border="0" /></a>By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - MPs on Friday criticised government spending of 424 million pounds to stockpile Roche's medicine Tamiflu, saying doubts about the drug's effectiveness suggest it may not be money well spent. Parliament's influential Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said it was &quot;surprised and concerned&quot; to discover that information on methods and results of clinical trials of such prescribed drugs &quot;is routinely withheld&quot;, and said there was a &quot;lack of consensus over how well Tamiflu ... actually works&quot;. &quot;The case for stockpiling antiviral medicines at the current level is based on judgment rather than on evidence of their effectiveness during an influenza pandemic,&quot; said Richard Bacon, a leading member of the committee. He added that as well as spending more than 420 million pounds on stockpiling Tamiflu, an antiviral medicine, the Department of Health was forced to write off 74 million pounds of that as a result of poor record-keeping by the National Health Service.</p><br clear="all"/>

Source: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login