Drug Shortage

Shortage of oseltamivir phosphate, brand name Tamiflu

The shortage of oseltamivir phosphate, brand name Tamiflu, reported by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, is a discouraging start to flu season here in the US. The oral suspension for children can be made from the 75mg capsules if you can get those, as per these instructions from Genentech.

The use of Tamiflu is very controversial. You can read the details on this Wikipedia page. The last paragraph under History is the most recent and ongoing controversy. Roche, Genentech’s parent company, selectively released clinical trial data, thereby skewing the information available to the public to that favorable to Tamiflu. My personal experience is that it works in adults and that irrational behavior did occur in an adult. This anecdotal evidence is validated to some extent by the Wikipedia entry and the associated reference. “However, another meta-analysis found that oseltamivir was effective for prevention of influenza at the individual and household levels. [14]” I mention irrational adult behavior because the original warning about psychiatric side effects was for children only based on clinical reports from Japan. That information has been updated as of October 2014, and particularly the dosage and administration has been revised. A summary of the latter is provided at the Genentech website.