The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 277 No 7416 p271
2 September 2006

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Pharmacists in Taiwan trained to compound oseltamivir solution for influenza pandemic

Pharmacists in Taiwan are preparing to compound oral solutions of oseltamivir should an influenza pandemic hit the country.

Speaking at the World Congress of Pharmacy in Salvador, Brazil, on 26 August, Chi Chou Liao, director general of the Taiwan department of health’s bureau of pharmaceutical affairs, said that Taiwan has managed to stockpile enough Tamiflu to cover 10 per cent of its population, but only a third of that is in the form of capsules supplied by Hoffman La Roche. The rest will be supplied as raw active ingredient to be compounded by pharmacists.

Mr Chi said that 1,573 pharmacists from 105 hospitals have been trained to compound oral solutions of oseltamivir.

“ Those pharmacists are eager to contribute their professional expertise to any public threat,” he said.