Yesterday it was made public that Roche, the makers of Tamiflu, gave all of its US employees, all 5,300 of them. The Reuters article is typical.
Roche gives workers flu drug in case of pandemic
By Lewis KrauskopfNUTLEY, N.J., March 8 (Reuters) – All 5,300 U.S. employees of Swiss drug-maker Roche Holding AG (ROG.VX: Quote, Profile, Research) have been issued supplies of its flu drug Tamiflu to weather a possible influenza pandemic, the company said on Thursday.
Roche’s U.S. employees had on-site doctor appointments and a mandatory online influenza tutorial before being given the prescription antiviral drug.
"We don’t know who may get sick, who may not get sick, so we thought it was important to protect all our employees," said Mike McGuire, Roche’s vice president for anti-infectives.
Whether to provide antivirals to employees was one issue companies wrestled with on Thursday at a six-hour seminar on corporate preparedness for a potential influenza pandemic.
This caused a bit of a stir in the Cyber Flu Community. Why was it done and why now, seemed to be the two operative questions. Of course everything is a guess, but the answers ranged from "They know something", to "An advertising coup."
It has long been Roche’s position to recommend companies stock Tamiflu for their critical employees, and it even makes sense to do so. If you want your employees to report to work to perform some critical function then the company has a responsibility to do everything within their power to protect the health and welfare of those employees.
Of course, I don’t have to worry about the corporation that I work for having a pandemic plan, there will be no business to conduct, therefore, no critical employees, therefore, no need to supply Tamiflu.
But this issue brings to light something that many in the Cyber Flu Community have run head long into, Tamiflu availability. We dutifully go to our doctors and meekly, or not so meekly, ask for a prescription for Tamiflu. More often than not the answer is a "No." Even after explaining our concerns and making our best case, our physicians tell us there is no need, or there are orders to not prescribe it, or there a danger that we, the uneducated and unwashed would misuse it. Need I tell you that we of the Cyber Flu Community are often leagues more informed on PanFlu and Tamiflu than the doctors we have gone groveling to?
Some have had success by being a little creative in their appeals to their doctors. Travel to a country where H5N1 is endemic seems to work once in awhile, as does the plea of exposure to flu but too important in the workplace to be out due to illness.
So, regardless of Roche’s motivations I applaud their actions. I believe that people should be empowered to do as much for themselves as possible in the face of a moderate to severe influenza pandemic. And, assuming that other companies and corporations will take notice and quite possibly institute a like action, the ripple effects will be a net positive, further education of the issues and further preparation to meet those issues. I also hold out a certain hope that there will be doctors that read the story and took note of a bold move to empower plain, ordinary, unannointed folk.
Hey… I admit it… I will take every glimmer of hope I can glean when it comes to forwarding the education and preparations of the general public when it comes to H5N1 and its PanFlu potential.
The issues specific to Tamiflu will have to wait for another blog entry, as I do feel it is time to address the issues.
On a personal note….
Yes I have been absent once again. Suffice it to say that life happens and the news has been such that I felt I had no significant contribution to make to it.
SZ
