NanoViricides Inc. (NNVC)

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Tamiflu report comes under fire

Conclusions on stockpiling of antiviral drugs challenged.

Declan Butler

22 April 2014

Pichi Chuang/Reuters/Corbis



The drug Tamiflu is prescribed as the front-line treatment for serious cases of influenza.

A study that calls into question the stockpiling of billions of dollars’ worth of antiviral drugs to mitigate the threat of influenza pandemics has been criticized by flu researchers.

The analysis of Tamiflu and Relenza, drugs known as neuraminidase inhibitors, was published on 10 April by the Cochrane Collaboration1, a group that reviews the effectiveness of health-care measures. It concluded that the medicines were of little use. At the same time, the journal BMJ published a series of articles, including two that summarize the Cochrane findings2, 3, and several editorials that focus on the five-year campaign by Cochrane and the BMJ to obtain the unpublished drug-company clinical-trial data later used in the review.
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http://www.nature.com/news/tamiflu-report-comes-under-fire-1.15091