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medpundit |
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Saturday, November 05, 2005Today's New York Times takes a look at the chemistry behind the Tamiflu production: Roche has said the manufacturing process requires 10 steps that take six to eight months once the raw materials are in hand. It also says that some steps in production are potentially hazardous because they involve the use of sodium azide, the chemical that makes automobile air bags inflate in an explosive rush. The company says it would take a newcomer two to three years to be able to start production. ....Part of the disagreement about the difficulty might stem from the difference between making small quantities in the laboratory, which can be done quite easily, and producing large amounts commercially. Ernie Prisbe, vice president for chemical development at Gilead Sciences, which invented Tamiflu and licensed it to Roche, said an industry rule of thumb is that each step, even if well defined, takes one month to six weeks to put into practice. Tamiflu manufacturing, by his count, involves 12 steps. And it takes an awful lot of star anise to make a little bit of Tamiflu: According to a presentation at a conference last year by a Roche chemist, it takes 13 grams of star anise to make 1.3 grams of shikimic acid, which in turn can be made into 10 Tamiflu capsules - enough to treat one person. By that reckoning, one ton of shikimic acid would be enough for 770,000 people. But Mr. Hamied, a chemist, disputed that, saying one ton of shikimic acid would yield enough for only 300,000 people at most. And newcomers are not likely to have the same production efficiency as Roche, he said. It's an interesting article that explores other methods of producing the key ingredient, shikimic acid, as well. A lot of the work is outsourced to other companies, including some in the fermentation and explosives industry. That means quite a few businesses have to be convinced that it's worth their while to ramp up production for a product that right now is enjoying a bubble only because of hype. posted by Sydney on 11/05/2005 01:35:00 PM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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