Swiss pharmaceutical firm Roche has criticized the world's governments for failing to stockpile enough of its antiviral drug Tamiflu to fight an influenza pandemic, Swiss Radio International (SRI) reported on Friday.

Roche head of pharmaceuticals, William Burns, said government orders for the drug had tailed off in the first quarter of this year despite the company boosting production capacity.

"Capacity constraint is no longer the issue, the issue is demand and how prepared do governments want to be. We can't just keep building inventory with nobody as a customer," Burns was quoted by SRI as saying.

"We have seen in the last two years that most world governmentshave moved a long way from where they started. But we believe there is still a long way to go...in terms of meeting treatment preparedness...that could dramatically reduce death rates," he said.

According to SRI, Roche currently has the capacity to produce 400 million treatments a year but will cut production in line with a reducing demand that currently stands at 215 million courses ordered by governments.

"Out of a population of 6 billion on the planet that is rather modest," Burns said.

Roche increased its Tamiflu production capacity at the end of last year after coming under international pressure. It has also granted licenses to companies in China, India and South Africa to produce the drug locally.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently reiterated its warning that an outbreak of a new form of influenza -- possibly from a mutation of the bird flu virus -- affecting humans was "overdue" and confirmed that Tamiflu was one crucial part of its plans to meet the threat.

The UN agency now has a Tamiflu stockpile of 3 million treatment courses or 30 million capsules.

Source: Xinhua