Roche to sub-license to others rights on Gilead patent on Tamiflu?

Roche, which has an exclusive patent to make Tamiflu until 2016 [Roche is an exclusive licensee of Gilead, who holds the patent], has been under growing international pressure to ease its control on the manufacture of the drug as governments and companies stockpile it to prepare for a possible influenza pandemic.

After a meeting between the Roche CEO Franz Humer and the Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou on November 3, 2005, the Commission's health spokesman Philip Tod said that "patents will not stand in the way of Roche making licence agreements with other companies to increase production capacity". Ensuring sufficient stocks for all EU member states will, however, be "gradual".