The city government of Shanghai offered 2 million yuan (US$247,524) yesterday to two local research institutes to jump-start the production of Roche's Tamiflu, a medicine which is effective to prevent bird flu, Oriental Morning Post reported today.

Roche has reportedly agreed to share its patented expertise in making Tamiflu with Shanghai Pharmaceutical Group Co.

The money will help Shanghai Pharmaceutical Group Co and Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, which belongs to Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), to improve production technology of Tamiflu to reach related technological standards.

Roche's product Tamiflu, which contains Chinese traditional medicine star anise, can prevent the bird flu. Roche has stopped all commercial sales of Tamiflu on China's mainland and transferred its supply of the anti-flu drug to the Ministry of Health for centralized distribution.

Demand of medicines to cure bird flu is surging. World Health Organization has tightened the research, production and emergent reserves to prevent and cure bird flu, which is currently circulating in animals in Asia and has been identified in parts of Europe.

(Shanghai Daily November 11, 2005)