Greece bans anti-flu drug exports

Greece has banned the export of two anti-flu drugs to safeguard its stockpiles in case a new strain of H1N1 flu hits the country, the Health Ministry said on Friday.

Although no case of the disease has so far been reported in Greece, authorities banned until further notice all exports of GlaxoSmithKline’s Relenza and Roche’s Tamiflu to ensure it has sufficient reserves to deal with a possible pandemic.

The ban particularly aims at preventing drug traders from engaging in arbitrage deals, Health Ministry spokesman Kostas Maniatis said. “Some people have found an opportunity to make money out of the affair,” he said.

Multinational drug companies have been protesting for years about arbitrage deals, under which wholesalers buy medicines at cheap, regulated prices in countries such as Greece, to sell them on in countries such as Germany, where prices are higher.

Greece has enough anti-flu drugs to treat 12 percent of the population, Maniatis said.

It has stepped up prevention measures at airports - installing infra-red cameras to detect people with high fever and distributing pamphlets to arriving passengers.