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WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES BY DEPUTY G.C.L. BAUDAINS OF ST. CLEMENT
ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 19th NOVEMBER 2013
Question
With regard to Tamiflu, would the Minister advise how much has been spent on the drug to date, whether stocks are still kept and, if so, how much?
Answer
To date, HSSD has purchased 100,000 courses of the antiviral Tamiflu in order to keep a stockpile in the Island. The price paid was £10.34 per pack making the total cost £1,034,000. This was purchased in 2006 and early 2007 when preparing for a possible pandemic relating to Avian Flu (H5N1). At that time it was considered prudent to stockpile one course of treatment for each individual in Jersey given the known virulence of the H5N1 virus.
The Tamiflu stock remaining after the H1N1 pandemic of 2009 has just expired.
HSSD is now in the process of replacing the stockpile with 25,000 courses of Tamiflu at a cost of 15 per pack. This price is the standard fixed price for governments of developed countries wishing to maintain a stockpile. It represents a discount to the normal retail price and represents best value to the island to achieve the aims of the Pandemic Strategy.
There was significant learning from the 2009 pandemic, both within Jersey and on a more global scale. That learning has been incorporated into the Channel Islands Pandemic Flu Strategy, which has been developed in collaboration with Guernsey colleagues and its principles and recommendations were recently approved by the Council of Ministers.