Novartis plans to enter flu-drug market
A drugmaker plans to enter the market for new influenza medicines and vaccines, but has ruled out making another Tamiflu.
Thomas Evans, head of infectious diseases at Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, said the company's new programme included tackling H5N1 flu in humans.
'As an infectious-disease group, we do not make 'me too' drugs. We only work on things which are novel that we believe will fit an unmet medical need. So we would never make another Tamiflu.
'So we would look at different mechanisms of attacking different parts of the virus life cycle. For viruses and bacteria, you always get resistance, so you need multiple mechanisms to overcome this. We work on completely novel targets.'
Asked whether it would be too late for the company to launch such a programme to tackle a bird flu pandemic, he replied: 'Certainly it is going to be challenging to get the medicine to the population in time.
'But if we don't start now, we are definitely going to fail, and waiting is not going to help.'
Dr Evans said the pharmaceutical firm, Europe's second-largest drugmaker by market value, did not have a formal relationship with Hong Kong but it had a research centre in Singapore.
'So if we decide to have collaboration in Asia, we are likely to work with our sister institution in Singapore,' he said.
