A new study on Thursday suggests the U.S. government's billion dollar stockpile of flu medicine may ...

1. Government stockpiles flu medicine, but does it work?
A new study on Thursday suggests the U.S. government's billion dollar stockpile of flu medicine may
have little effect in a pandemic.
The government amassed enough flu medicine for 65 million people and the risk can be high. The
outbreak of 1918, for example, killed more than 600,000 Americans.
The report challenges the assumption that antiviral medications like Tamiflu and Relenza offer
significant help against the flu.
A new study raises questions about whether the government should be stockpiling flu medicines
CBS News
The Cochrane Collaboration, an independent, worldwide, medical research group, reviewed 24,000
patients who used Tamiflu.
The major findings:
the drug decreased symptoms slightly, by 17 hours, from 7 days to 6.3 days
there was no compelling evidence it prevented pneumonia or reduced the risk of death.
"There's no good evidence that you will reduce the risk of hospitalization or other complications and
no evidence that it reduces the spread of influenza between people," said Peter Doshi, one of the
authors.

2. The government
http://www.blogigo.com/mammothpsycholo09/What-is-cross-channel-marketing-Answerbag/1/ has
amassed a billion dollar stockpile of flu medicine
CBS News
Critics like Doshi say the review raises questions because Tamiflu is a key component of the
government's plan to handle a future flu pandemic, to help decrease hospitalizations and death.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has spent $1.3 billion stockpiling this class of
drugs.
"We need to have evidence-informed policy decisions, and so that starts with independent reviews of
the evidence before you go out and you spend billions of dollar stockpiling these drugs," Doshi said.
Peter Doshi

3. CBS News
Roche, the maker of Tamiflu, issued a statement saying the company "fundamentally disagrees with
the overall conclusions" and cites a study it funded last year showing Tamiflu "was associated with a
reduction in the risk of death by 19 percent."
Barry Clinch is a scientist with Roche said that there is a "significant body of expertise that have
looked at our data, and share the same position that we do, that Tamiflu is a very useful medicine for
treating what is a serious respiratory infection."
After this report was issued on Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control said it continues to
recommend anti-viral medications such as Tamiflu for treating the flu.
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