Flu vaccine news: The much touted Tamiflu is NOT the miracle drug. Nobody knows if it works. Roche Labs, the patent owner and maker of the drug, said today it is willing to help other companies make it, but the litigation fear in the U.S. may mean that U.S. manufacturers won 't make any. There are only three U.S. manufacturers left and with Schumer (TA (total asshole) NY) threatening to break all patents in the U.S. you can bet even more drug companies will be reluctant to mess around with inventing drugs.

There are few U.S. vaccine makers. And even those, such as Deerfield, Ill.-based Baxter International, produce most of their flu vaccine outside the United States in countries that can claim first dibs on any vaccine made to protect against bird flu, the company and government officials acknowledged.

Even more, we will be last in line in the world if a vaccine is developed

There is no commercially available bird-flu vaccine, and no one knows for certain how much of the experimental vaccines being worked on would be available and when. But if one is developed, the void in capacity to produce flu vaccines in the United States highlights the troubling aspects of the U.S. vaccine business, which has unappealing economics: small profits, high risks and stagnant innovation.

from Seattle Times.