Tamiflu sales 74 times higher than usual

Tamiflu sales in New Zealand have reached 74,000 packets - 74 times more than normal winter sales.

Pharmaceutical company Roche, which manufactures the antiviral drug, usually provides New Zealand stockists with about 1000 courses of Tamiflu during winter.

But Roche sales and marketing director Stuart Knight said that number had exploded as a result of the global swine flu pandemic.

The figure did not include Health Ministry stockpiles of Tamiflu, which the ministry had given to people testing positive for swine flu.

Tamiflu retails for about $65 a packet.

Mr Knight said he shared concerns that swine flu could mutate with a Tamiflu-resistant strain of influenza.

"What nobody wants is a Tamiflu-resistant virus [to mix] with swine flu."

However, a Tamiflu-resistant swine flu would not necessarily be a super-bug, he said, and could be similar to a current strain of Tamiflu-resistant influenza that was not proving to be any more severe than other strains.

Environmental Science and Research virologist Sue Huang, head of the World Health Organisation national influenza centre in Upper Hutt, said earlier this week that scientists feared what would happen if swine flu mutated and developed resistance to Tamiflu.

The ministry is also stockpiling another antiviral drug, Relenza.

- © Fairfax NZ News