Algeria begins manufacturing bird flu drug Tamiflu

ALGIERS (AFP) - Algeria began manufacturing the bird flu drug Tamiflu under the brand name Saiflu in preparation for a possible pandemic of the disease, the Algerian news agency APS reported.
Algeria's state-owned pharmaceutical group Saidal began making the drug after signing an agreement in February with the Indian laboratory Hetero Labs Limited.

Saidal's director general Ali Aoun said the group planned to make six million boxes of the drug by the end of the year to create an emergency stockpile.
He added that the supply would "provide protection for 25 percent of the population in case of a pandemic, in line with the recommendations of the World Health Organisation".
Aoun also said an initial stock of 50,000 boxes of the drug would be made available to the country's central pharmacy arond the end of April.