Drug-resistant swine flu strain killed with Tamiflu alternative
A Danish patient came down with swine flu, but the strain proved resistant to Tamiflu, which is produced by Roche; doctors used the drug Relenza from rival GlaxoSmithKline to kill the resistant strain
A drug-resistant strain of swine flu appeared in a Danish patient and then apparently died out before the infection could spread. The Danish patient’s strain of swine flu was resistant to Tamiflu, an antiviral drug produced by the Swiss company, Roche. The BBC reports that the drug has been the recommended medicine to fight the virus. If taken early, Tamiflu eases the symptoms of swine flu, making it less likely to spread.
The New York Times’s Donald McNeil writes that The patient recovered after a competitor’s drug was used.
An executive of Roche, the Swiss maker of Tamiflu, held a telephone news conference to describe the progress of the Danish patient, who apparently developed the resistant strain while being protectively treated with a low Tamiflu dose because a close contact had the swine flu. Doctors switched treatment to a different but related drug, Relenza, and the patient recovered.
The pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline manufactures Relenza.
Virologists continue to worry a mutated strain of the swine flu could occur if the current strain merges with seasonal H1N1 flu, possibly in the Southern Hemisphere as it enters flu season.
