Star role for bacteria in fight against flu

By: David Bradley

TamifluAs fears spread about a potential flu pandemic, Roche's antiviral drug Tamiflu (oseltamivir phosphate) has found itself thrust under the spotlight. With the current supply thought to cover just 2% of the world population, health officials and researchers are asking how Roche can create enough supplies to be stockpiled and help control an outbreak until a vaccine can be made. Of all the proposals suggested, it is ironic that the best solution to controlling a flu pandemic with an antiviral drug could lie within bacteria. In fact, some scientists believe that engineering microbes to produce Tamiflu and its derivatives could be our best hope for creating enough antiviral drugs.

You can read my lead story in the December issue of Nature Reviews Drug Discovery (free subscription), 2005, 4, 945-946; http://www.nature.com/nrd/journal/v4/n12/full/nrd1917.html (sorry, this article is available to subscribers or through a one-off purchase)

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