UK has wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on flu medicines

A study shows the British government has wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on stockpiling ineffective medicine for emergency treatment of flu.

According to IRIB, Oxford University conducted the study and published the results on Thursday.

The UK Department of Health spent USD 711 million on Tamiflu medicine and another USD 228 million on Relenza medicine for a flue pandemic between 2006 and 2013, the study said.

Researchers from the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and the Cochrane Collaboration, a group of independent scientists, said the medicines offered only a small benefit to flu victims with no evidence that they reduced the risk of hospitalization or death.

The scientists also found worrying side effects in people taking the medicines to prevent flue, including psychiatric and kidney problems.

The study said “There appears to be no evidence for patients, clinicians or policy makers to use these drugs to prevent serious outcomes, both in annual influenza and pandemic influenza outbreaks.”