Rouche has been condemned by a writer for the Boston Globe who has never had to make a payroll or ever accomplished anything in the free market in his life. It seems the writer has stated that the buying up of 90% of the Star Anise fruit crop is a predatory pricing strategy by Rouche Pharmaceuticals to corner the market on key ingredients of the Tamiflu bird flu vaccine.

If Rouche has orders for Bird Flu and they do. Then they need a way to produce as much as possible. Also just because they start producing it now does not mean it will be correct for the eventual human strain if that ever develops to a large degree as predicted. In other words we do not know what that strain will actually be or all its characteristics yet. Although we have a pretty good idea to ball park it.

If Rouche buys up all the Star Anise Fruits and uses it huge strength to further research or upgrade facilities then that is a good thing as it will allow them to keep prices low, since it has the vertical integration in the market to control that commodity, not necessarily a price fixing strategy. In fact it may very well be a good thing for all mankind that Rouche is thinking ahead and insuring their supply chain for Bird Flu vaccine now, so if and when the time comes, they will be ready. Consider this in 2006.

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