Second Tamiflu delivery arrives

A second delivery of the drug Tamiflu has arrived in New Zealand and will be transported to five secure facilities around the country over the next couple of weeks.

All up New Zealand now has 1,229,103 treatment courses in store, equivalent to one course for 30% of the New Zealand population including the populations of the Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau.

It is estimated that an additional 350,000 - 400,000 courses are in private or corporate hands.

All but 22,383 of the national reserve was purchased in the 2005/06 and 2006/07 years.

The total cost of the 2005/06 and 2006/07 purchases was $36,440,949 (GST exclusive).

Storage costs, including insurance for the full replacement value, is $70,836 per annum (GST exclusive), 0.19% of the value of the stockpile.

To reduce vulnerability to natural disasters, fires, extreme weather events etc, no single storage facility may hold more than 35% of the total stocks.

Background information: long-term storage and shelf life of Tamiflu

The 22,383 of the national reserve purchased before 2005/06 are part of an earlier purchase of short-dated stock, made to ensure we had some Tamiflu on hand before delivery of the first large bulk purchase.

The medication from the earlier purchase is now over 7 years old, but regular testing shows that it is still safe and efficacious, and is able to be retained in the national reserve supplies.

Note - most medicines have a maximum shelf life/expiry date of 5-years, but this does not necessarily mean the medicine becomes unusable at this time.

The older stock of Tamiflu is acting as 'fleet leader' for the main supply. This means that this stock is being tested annually by Roche to ensure that the medicine remains stable, safe and effective.

This process of testing provides confidence that the main national reserve supply will still be usable until at least 20/12/14.

The final life of Tamiflu is not yet known, as it hasn't yet been around for much more than 7 years.

Pharmacological opinion is that the gelatine in the capsules would break down before the actual medication inside becomes unfit for use.

• The Ministry of Health website has more about the anti-viral medicine Tamiflu
• The Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management website has more info on what to do in a disaster