Anti swine flu drug 'FLUVIR' now available in India

Mumbai: Hetero Healthcare Limited, an Indian drug manufacturer, today announced that the company's anti swine flu drug 'FLUVIR' is now available in retail markets across India.
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The swine flu pandemic
Hetero is the only Indian pharma company to have the licensing rights from Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd to manufacture and supply Oseltamivir (generic name of anti H1N1flu drug) in India as well as in other 100 underdeveloped and developing countries.
Hetero brings to India FLUVIR (similar to Tamiflu) with collaboration benefits of expertise and back-up yielding product of international quality, a company release said here today.
FLUVIR is the first Oseltamivir drug launched in Indian retail market.
Before the Government notification of allowing retail sale of anti-viral drug Oseltamivir, the Centre procured 19 million FLUVIR capsules from Hetero to check the recent outbreak of deadly H1N1 flu in India, Srinivas Reddy, marketing director, Hetero said.
FLUVIR, which was available only through Government hospitals, will now be available in around 480 designated medical shops having Schedule X licence across the country, he said.
Reddy said responding to Centre's request to increase the production capacity from 100 million capsules per month to 200 million capsules per month, Hetero has come up with dedicated manufacturing facilities in Vishakapatnam exclusively to produce FLUVIR.
It is fully prepared with adequate raw materials and manufacturing capacities to meet the demand of FLUVIR to treat millions of swine flu patients, he said.
Persons who want to purchase the drug have to produce two copies of prescription of the drug, the company release said.
While selling this drug, pharmacists have to make a record of the prescriptions, name of the doctor and the person to whom it was sold. The price of the drug is Rs 450 for 10 capsules -- for a single therapy.
"With our manufacturing facilities exclusively for FLUVIR, Hetero will be able to deliver sufficient number of doses to treat more than 2 crore people in an emergency situation," Reddy said.