Sales of the antiviral drug Tamiflu, a money spinner for pharmaceutical group Roche during the 2009 flu pandemic, continued to fall in late 2010, in line with forecasts, the said indicated on Friday.
Media reports said sales of the drug should reach about 50 million Swiss francs (39.9 million euros, 52 million dollars) in the last quarter.
A spokeswoman for Roche said "the 50 million (levels) mentioned are in line with group forecasts."
Roche predicted in October that annual sales of Tamiflu should reach a "maximum" of one billion Swiss francs in 2010, compared to 3.2 billion in 2009.
Over the first nine months of last year sales, totalled 808 million francs, after dropping tenfold in the third quarter alone to 98 million francs.
The drug is regarded as a frontline treatment for severe influenza. Sales soared amid a rush by governments to stockpile the drug after the World Health Organisation declared a global pandemic over H1N1 swine flu in June 2009.
earlier related report
Swine flu causes deaths in Balkans
Zagreb (AFP) Jan 7, 2011 –
Croatia recorded the second death linked to swine flu this season while nearly 50 people infected with the H1N1 virus have been hospitalised in Zagreb, national television reported on Friday.
A 53-year-old patient, hospitalised at the start of the year, died of complications caused by the flu, the television said quoting medical sources.
A total of 48 patients have contracted the H1N1 — swine flu — virus, and five of them are in serious condition, it added.
The first victim, a 60-year-old man, died in late December.
In neighbouring Bosnia, a 64-year old man, infected with the same virus, died in a hospital in the capital Sarajevo, Health Ministry said.
This is the first swine flu-related death in Bosnia this season.
The World Health Organization declared the swine flu pandemic over in August, more than a year after the virus that emerged from Mexico sparked panic and killed thousands of people around the world before fizzling out.
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