Is This The Long Awaited Pandemic?

[David Guyatt]

I have today asked the government's Chief Medical Officer to provide the current number of deaths attributable to swine flu - and will post the reply here when received. The last published figure I can find was 29 in Summer 09. Nothing since then, it seems. Anyway, it will be interesting to see just how much hype there was.

Meanwhile, the fortnightly bulletin issued by the CMO about swine flu has been terminated. The epidemic is effectively over.

But the profits continue to roll in.

Yours cynically,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8494892.stm

Tamiflu sales boost Roche profits



Swiss drugs firm Roche has reported an 8% rise in annual sales, helped by sales of swine flu drug Tamiflu and cancer treatments, such as Herceptin.

The rate of growth is twice the industry average and operating profits were up by 14% to 15bn Swiss francs ($14.2bn, £8.89bn).

However, overall net income for the year fell 22% to 8.5bn Swiss francs as a result of takeover costs.

Last year, Roche bought US pharmaceutical giant Genentech.

It says that this deal is already proving profitable.

Although sales of Tamiflu soared last year, they are expected to fall sharply in 2010, to 1.2bn Swiss francs from 3.2bn Swiss francs in 2009.