Pharmaceutical firm Roche launched on Thursday a program that allowed stockpiling of Tamiflu by U.S. firms in preparation for a flu pandemic. Tamiflu is an anti-viral drug to prevent and treat influenza.

To join the program, a company must commit to order a minimum of 2,500 courses of Tamiflu at $6 a piece, which is less than 10 percent of the final market price. That amounts to an annual order of $15,000, according to Roche president and chief executive officer George Abercrombie. A course is made up of 10 doses

The Egyptian government reported the country's 21st death from the deadly H5N1 strain of avian flu on Saturday. The man died in the northern Delta region, the North African nation's health ministry said.

Mohamed Idris, from Baheira, had been at a hospital in Egypt's second largest city Alexandria with reported respiratory problems and a high fever. He did not respond to the anti-viral drug Tamiflu, Deputy Minister Nasr Al Sayed told the official government news agency MENA

A 25-year-old woman from Fayoum, an hour southwest of Cairo, has died in a Giza hospital as a result of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu. Suzanne Ali Salah had been reported infected last week and was being treated with the anti-viral drug Tamiflu.

Salah became the 20th victim in the North African nation to have died from the deadly avian flu since it was first discovered in March 2006, the ministry of health said on Tuesday

Egypt's ministry of health on Saturday confirmed the human infection of the deadly bird flu virus in less than one week. The 25-year-old woman is the 45th human case of the H5N1 strain of the avian flu since the disease was first discovered in the Egyptian population in March 2006.

According to the ministry, in statements reported by the official news agency MENA, the woman has been transferred to Cairo after developing symptoms similar to those of bird flu. She is currently being treated by the antiviral drug Tamiflu, ministry spokesman Abdel Rahman Shaheen was quoted by the news agency as saying

Because of the weak demand for camera supplies as more consumers shift to digital photography, Japanese firm Fujifilm is shifting to pharmaceuticals. The company announced it will purchase 66 percent of Toyama Chemical Company that is experimenting on an influenza medicine capable of battling bird flu.

Following the announcement of Fujifilm's diversification, its price on the Tokyo Stock Exchange went up Tuesday by 1 percent to $36.69 (3,940 yen) per share, while Toyama shares were constant at $8.14 (874 yen) per share