Roche Holding AG is in “close contact” with governments worldwide and can boost production of its Tamiflu influenza treatment if a swine-flu pandemic develops, Chief Executive Officer Severin Schwan said.

“We are ready to deliver emergency stocks to the World Health Organization,” Schwan said during a press conference in Paris today. “We can intensify production of Tamiflu.”

As many as 152 people died in Mexico from swine flu-related causes, and the virus is confirmed in the U.S., U.K., Canada, New Zealand and Spain. The WHO has raised its global pandemic alert level, indicating the disease is no longer containable. A pandemic is an unexpected outbreak of a new contagious disease that spreads from person to person across borders.

Roche, based in Basel, Switzerland, can make as many as 400 million doses of Tamiflu a year but lifting production to its maximum “takes some time,” Schwan said. Governments worldwide already have about 220 million doses in stock, he said.

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“We are much better prepared today compared to the situation which occurred a couple years ago with the avian flu,” Schwan said.

France has 23 million Tamiflu doses in stock, said Sophie Kornowski-Bonnet, who heads Roche’s French pharmaceutical unit.

It’s “too early” to say whether governments will be placing more Tamiflu orders in the days to come, Schwan said.

The WHO confirmed that Tamiflu “is active” against swine flu, Schwan said. Roche, the world’s biggest maker of cancer drugs, has no shortage of Tamiflu stocks for now, he said.

The company has 3 million Tamiflu doses as part of an emergency stock for the WHO that can be sent immediately, Schwan said. Half of those doses are in Switzerland and half are in the U.S., making it quicker to send them, he said. The WHO already has a stock if its own of 2 million Tamiflu doses, Schwan added.

Roche doesn’t plan to increase the price of Tamiflu, Schwan also said.

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