The drug company that created Tamiflu - being touted as the only effective weapon against the spread of avian flu - has a little-publicized link to the Bush administration: Donald Rumsfeld was the company's chairman.

Rumsfeld served as head of Gilead Sciences, Inc., from 1997 until he became Bush's secretary of defense in 2001.

Gilead licensed the drug to Roche for marketing, and Roche announced Tamiflu's first approval in 1999.

Now Tamiflu has been designated as the best drug available that can purportedly slow the spread of avian flu if it evolves the ability to readily jump between humans, and hundreds of millions of doses have been ordered around the world.

Sales of Tamiflu are reportedly projected to reach $1.1 billion next year.

But Tamiflu may not be the anti-flu panacea it's been cracked up to be.

Researchers in Japan monitored the evolution of ordinary flu viruses that had infected 50 children. The flu victims were treated with Tamiflu.

"Beginning as early as day four after the drug was given, flu strains resistant to it emerged in about one-fifth of the children," Fortune magazine reported.

Other recent studies show that Tamiflu may have lost much of its effectiveness against avian flu - eight of ten victims in Vietnam died despite getting the drug.

So some are becoming highly suspicious of the continued touting of the drug.

"Somehow it became established that Tamiflu really worked," reads a report on the Web site FreeMarketNews.com.

"This was the party line, anyway, for about a week, until word began trickling back in that maybe Tamiflu didn't work.

"We even find corroboration of it here on Democrats.com, in what appears to be either a chat room or news roundup as follows: 'Rummy was CEO of Gilead Sciences until named to the Bush cabinet and, like Cheney, still has ties that bind to the 'old company.'"

FreeMarketNews.com, which promotes itself as a news site for "free-market thinkers," goes on to say:

"Now isn't it an 'amazing coincidence' that the drug Tamiflu patented by Gilead Sciences is being pushed by the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases as the Number One choice for flu."

Two footnotes:

• From 1977 to 1985, Rumsfeld was the chairman of another drug firm, G.D. Searle & Co., which developed an oral contraceptive and the sweetener aspartame.

• In June, Gilead sent Roche a notice of termination of the Tamiflu deal for breach of contract, Investor's Business Daily reported. Among several complaints from Gilead, the company charged that Roche hasn't correctly calculated royalties for Gilead, which gets 10.3 percent of sales.

The dispute has gone to binding arbitration.