Not a very nice topic but It could be very realistic. Just wanted to know If anyone had any ideas on which BIO companys and others could benefit from this if indeed we get the blessed germ in this Country.

Acambis and Biotrace perhaphs???????????????????????.

Whats Your thoughts?????????????????????????

cheers GF.

Maybe Energy Tech. (ETQ) They could do with something to help them. If avian flu is an airborne pathogen (realise the absurdity of that!) ie once it has left a bird, then ETQ's suvair nightingale AC equipment would help considerably. Currently ETQ are a disaster area although now 50% underpinned by a subsid. of Tchenquiz family, so probably not the basket case that they would otherwise be. Don't expect to see any PR from the company promoting their products - their PR cons. are rubbish/non-existant!!

Indian drugmaker to make generic version of Tamiflu - report
AFX


LONDON (AFX) - Indian pharmaceutical manufacturer Cipla plans to produce a generic version of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu to counter a feared bird flu pandemic, the Financial Times reported quoting a company official.

'The whole world needs it and there is a tremendous shortage,' Cipla's joint managing director Amar Lulla told the paper, brushing off the potential threat of legal action from Tamiflu's maker Roche.

'We will sell it in many countries where there are no patents,' notably in Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia,' Lulla said. 'We are not going into markets where there are valid patients,' such as Europe and the United States.

Cipla would sell its own version of oseltamivir, the generic name for Tamiflu, at a 'humanitarian' price below that of the Roche product, Lulla said, though he declined to give a figure.

Cipla, India's third largest drugs producer, also makes cheap generic versions of drugs to combat the AIDS virus.

I looked this up earlier, this would seem most up to date, can anyone tell me where the company is listed, the company is called "Sanofi pasteur"


http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8009&feedId=online-news_rss20

sanofi pasteur is a subsiduary of the parent company sanofi-aventis, listed on the Euronext (code ISIN FR0000120578) and NYSE (EPIC SNY)

Bioprogress may well benefit, the current two piece Tamiflu capsules leave it wide open to counterfieting; especially with the capsules selling for up to 9 each on the internet. The Bioprogress Nrobe system would solve this overnight.

Impossible to recreate with added barcoding i'll hazard that roche will be knocking on the door of FMC to get hold of a machine very soon.

http://www.fmcmagenta.com/

lol , in your dreams shammy

Human flu pandemic 'inevitable' in Britain, chief medical officer says
AFX


LONDON (AFX) - The deadly avian influenza virus found in Turkey and Romania is bound to combine with a human variety at some point and cause a pandemic that would kill around 50,000 people in Britain, the country's chief medical officer said.

'The significance of it isn't that there will be a pandemic of bird flu itself, the significance of it is that at some point, and we go by the lessons of history, the bird flu virus will combine with a human flu virus and then it will become easily transmissible,' Liam Donaldson told BBC television.

'Why is that inevitable? Well because it has happened before.'

On Saturday the presence of the deadly H5N1 virus bird flu was confirmed in Romania, only two days after it was found in Turkey.

Donaldson said that a normal winter flu killed more than 12,000 people in Britain every year.

'But if we had a pandemic, the problem would be that our existing vaccines don't work against it, we would have to develop a new vaccine, and people don't have natural immunity because it hasn't been around before.

'So the estimate we are working on in the number of deaths is around 50,000 excess deaths from flu. But it could be a lot higher than that, it very much depends whether this mutated strain is a mild one or a more serious one.'

Donaldson however said that the pandemic may not arrive this winter.

No mention of HCEG who claim that their product Ebiox kills Avian Bird Flu on contact surfaces.It is not a drug to be administered but the NHS should stockpile Ebiox sprays and wipes etc.to use in hospitals and clinics.The army should buy these products too,as soldiers would be called out to collect bodies if the funerary system became overburdened.and would need to spray contaminated chicken factories too.
Biodegradable coffins and bodybags...masks and rubber gloves...vegetarian versions of chicken dishes..would sell in the event of an outbreak in western europe.
As all social contact would break down,most people would stay at home and watch television or gamble on the internet.More alcohol would be consumed at home.Large supermarkets would suffer more than small,local shops.Cigarette and anti-depression drugs consumption would increase.
The number of available nurses would decrease as with schools and creches closed,mothers would have to stay at home to mind their children.
At the moment there is no cure for Avian Flu,fifty percent of people who have it will die....pretty horrible scenario. Stockmarkets would be very vulnerable in the event of a pandemic.
Any investing in specific firms having relevance to such a disaster would be purely speculative and buoyed by a sense of doom laden hysteria.
In theory,we should get a real sense of the danger next spring when wild birds start migrating back from Africa to northern lands.As it is,the British government left it a bit late to order their Tamiflu tabs from Roche and do not have enough to protect most of the population.Tamiflu must be administered within 48 hrs of symptoms appearing,so there will be complete chaos in surgeries and hospitals as people think that they are infected with the killer flu.
What a world to live in.
LOL Ethel
On the same theme,biodegradable coffins which are easy to store and transport would sell.Also masks and rubber gloves.

Blimey Ethel, im moving into the bunker.

cheers GF.

HCEG should do well out of this.

British Airports and Airlines will crash unless they have air sanitised cabins - will ETQ benefit or will pigs fly

Good point legins.

cheers GF.

Have a look at the small article on page six of this week's edition of "MoneyWeek".

Avian Flu is not a new thing - it has been around in one form or other since there have been birds. It has not mutated to a form that has harmed humans in the last million years - so why do we think it will now? To date only 60 people have died, in areas where their hygiene standards are questionable to say the least.

Remember SARS. Weren't we going to have a pandemic from that and all die in our thousands?

I say invest in salt. Large pinches will be required everywhere. :-)

LOL

HCEG (Healthcare enterprises) could benefit with its Ebiox products.

Legins, ETQ are apparently developing a retrofit in-line suvair unit which will be available in 2006. Some airlines rejected the idea of putting nightingales in their planes on the grounds of wight. One famous airline operator apparently decided he'd rather have video screens in the back of headrests than cleaner microbe free air. He might have to rethink that one. Anyway they could be made of titanium.

It never surprises me to see how the Masses are so easily led.

Talk about the Emperors clothes.

...Large Pinches of Salt just about sums It up as StarFrog say's. :-)

Agree Stan. But the facts don't come in to it when working out what the general public want. The millenium bug didn't exist, in truth, and no-one was at risk from it, but many computer companies made a mint from it.
Avian flu is almost certainly a media scare story, but that will not stop the public demanding to know what precautions industry and government have taken, so they must take some. the question is, who will benefit?
Alan

No Idear Alan, as my Share picking strategy does not cover these type of hype stories.

Undertakers should do well------ if they survive!

LOL Fred.

HCEG looks so far to be the best investment (for UK investors) ETQ interesting aswell, anymore thoughts????????.

Stans right these can be hype stories but lets not forget the early bird syndrome ETC, ETC. I remember when ETQ whent through the roof only a few year back.

cheers GF.

Ps any way theres nowt else to discuss on rotten days like today. Maybe we should have a board quiz?.