EU fails to agree on antiviral stockpile for flu

LUXEMBOURG, June 3 (Reuters) European Union health ministers failed to reach a long-awaited agreement to set up a strategic stockpile of antiviral drugs to deal with any Europe-wide flu pandemic, the EU's executive arm has said.

''It is my view that such a stockpile could have given us reinforced defences throughout the EU, particularly in the early stages of a pandemic,'' EU Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner Markos Kyprianou said in a statement' yesterday.

''Today's debate showed there was no agreement on the development of such a measure and it means that it is even more important that member states make every effort to build up their own anti-viral stockpiles,'' he said.

It was not immediately clear what were the differences that prevented the ministers from reaching an agreement.

The H5N1 strain of bird flu has spread rapidly in the past six months from Asia into parts of the West Asia, Europe and Africa. The virus, which mainly affects birds, has infected more than 224 people since 2003, killing at least 127 of them.

National health experts have for months discussed the idea of a stockpile, which the European Commission is keen to promote.

The World Health Organisation recommends that countries stockpile antiviral drugs for 20-25 per cent of the population in case of an influenza pandemic. One of the main antiviral drugs is Tamiflu, made by Swiss drug manufacturer Roche .

Kyprianou has said a centralised stockpile would not be prohibitively expensive since it was meant only as a first line of defence rather than treatment for everyone in the EU.

''The responsibility now lies fully with national authorities to ensure that there are sufficient resources, at the very least for the most vulnerable, in the case of a pandemic,'' he said.

REUTERS SI RN1018