Govt to stock 1 million doses of bird flu drug

"There is no case of bird flu in the country. But there has been a lot of panic," Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said after a high-level meeting.

A number of steps have been initiated jointly by health ministry and environment and animal husbandry department in this regard.  Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may also convene a meeting on the issue, he said.

"There is no stockpile of the drug currently, but ten lakh doses of the drug, Tamiflu, will be stockpiled," Ramadoss said.

"We will buy form Roche and GlaxoSmithKline. We are also not ruling out compulsory licensing in case of an emergency which will allow Indian manufacturers to make the drug," he said.

However, Indian companies have not approached the government for licensing so far, he said. The health ministry has also requested the ministry of industrial development for written advice on the drug's patenting issue.

Roche representatives would visit India on October 29 and apprise us on the quantity of the drug the company could supply, Ramadoss said.

Meanwhile, WHO has stockpiled three-million doses of the drug for global supply. The world body was planning to stockpile 15,000 to 20,000 doses for the South-East Asian Region, WHO representative Salim Habayeb said.