Roche Holding Ltd. said Tuesday it has lifted prior restrictions on distributing its drug Tamiflu in the United States because of increased reports of flu around the country and patients' resistance to other medications, The Associated Press reported. The Swiss drug company had been limiting distribution to areas which had reported a high incidence of flu in order to avoid patients hoarding the drug. Last fall, there was a huge spike in Tamiflu demand that was driven by fears of a potential flu pandemic caused by a mutation of the bird flu virus. Experts believe Tamiflu will be effective in treating bird flu, should the virus mutate to a form easily transferable between humans. But Roche decided to end restrictions as the flu becomes more prevalent around the U.S. Moreover, Roche said the government now recommends against using two other antiviral medications, amantadine and rimantadine, for the remainder of the flu season because of high levels of patient resistance. --SP 20 49 Local Time 17 49 GMT
