BIG PROBLEM - in the UK the brand is called TamiFlu. However for many reasons the maker Roche is not divulging important details of its product, how it is made, what strength it is, if it actually works, what the side effects are, etc. So whilst the vast majority of elderly and infirm are requesting a flu jab this year, many are not. These latter - like myself - are holding back whilst trying - unsuccessfully to find out more about the risks. Its a case of not trusting Big Pharma.

===

Scandal of the poison pen-pushers: How doctors and patients are kept in the dark about potentially dangerous everyday drugs
By DR BEN GOLDACRE
PUBLISHED: 22:00, 1 December 2012

Tamiflu is supposed to be the miracle flu drug. Patients across the UK rely on it. In medicine cupboards everywhere patients have eagerly stockpiled it, and in some winters there has even been talk of rationing.

The Government itself has spent £500 million on stockpiling the drug to keep the country from collapse in the wake of a bird-flu epidemic, since it's supposed to reduce the risk of pneumonia and death.

And yet for all we know, Tamiflu might be no better than paracetamol: because Roche, the company making it, still withholds vital information on the risks and benefits from researchers, doctors and patients.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2241431/Scandal-poison-pen-pushers-How-doctors-patients-kept-dark-potentially-dangerous-everyday-drugs.html

====