Zurich, Dec. 23 (Reuters): Roche Holding AG has granted a sub-licence to India’s Hetero Drugs to produce Tamiflu for developing nations, the second such deal to boost output of the scarce anti-viral drug.

The agreement with Hetero covers India and other developing nations and allows the Indian firm to produce a generic version of the flu treatment specifically for governments wishing to create emergency stores.

The decision to outsource production of Tamiflu to other companies follows pressure on the Swiss drug maker to increase output as governments around the world stockpile the medicine as the best defence against a bird flu pandemic.

Roche said the agreement with Hetero would have an immediate effect on availability of the drug, known generically as Oseltamivir, in India and other developing countries.

The Swiss firm remained on track to meet orders placed by more than 50 governments, but the deal with Hetero meant that poorer countries would get their orders filled more quickly than anticipated, Roche said.

“Hetero is the first company that was identified to be able to speed up agreed delivery timelines in the first half of 2006,” the company said in a statement.

Hetero said in a statement it was committed to delivering 1 million capsules of Oseltamivir to the Indian government by January 15, 2006, and would then fill other government orders.

Roche previously said it was searching for partners to help ramp up production in the first six months of next year, but that it was confident it could make 300 million treatments of the drug annually by 2007.

Earlier this month Roche granted a sub-licence for the overall production of oseltamivir for pandemic use to Shanghai Pharmaceutical Group.

The company has also agreed to deliver the drug in powder form to Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia and Vietnam where it will be put into capsules. There is no patent protection on the drug in Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.

By receiving a production sub-licence from Roche, Hetero also adheres to new legislation governing patents, which comes into effect on January 1 in India, Roche said.

Roche holds an exclusive licence to produce Tamiflu, a drug that was first discovered by US firm Gilead Sciences Inc. It is thought to be the best defence against a H5N1 strain of bid flu but some scientists have warned about resistance to the compounds.

The World Health Organisation recommends governments to create stockpiles of drugs such as Tamiflu, part of a class called neuraminidase inhibitors, to protect their populations in the event of an outbreak of avian flu.

Hetero, which makes anti-retroviral drugs, withdrew its generic versions of anti-AIDS treatments from the WHO’s list of approved drugs late last year after concerns about their laboratory tests.