[e-drug] South African Company Will Produce First Generic AIDS Drug

[Leela McCullough <leela@healthnet.org>]

E-drug: South African Company Will Produce First Generic AIDS Drug
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[Long URLs will need repair]
 From UN Wire, August 7, 2003
South African Company Will Produce First Generic AIDS Drug

Thursday, August 7, 2003

In an effort to provide South Africans with affordable HIV/AIDS 
drugs, a South African drug company announced yesterday it had begun 
producing, under license, the first cheap, generic copies of 
Bristol-Myers Squibb's Zerit, and was working on versions of other 
AIDS drugs, 
<http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/08/06/safrica.aids.drugs.ap/index.html>
Associated Press reported yesterday.

Aspen Pharmacare, which invested two years and hundreds of thousands 
of dollars on producing the drug Aspen-Stavudine, told reporters it 
was offering one month's supply for between $3 and $4, depending on 
the dose. Zerit costs about $5 in South Africa, where an estimated 5 
million people are infected with HIV.

Aspen CEO Stephen Saad said Aspen is also developing generic versions 
of GlaxoSmithKline's Combivir, 3TC and AZT, as well as Boehringer 
Ingelheim's nevirapine.

Once all of those generic versions are registered with South Africa's 
Medicines Control Council, Saad said, Aspen will try to offer the 
standard triple combination therapy for less than $1 a day.

While the South African government praised the announcement, AIDS 
activist group Treatment Action Campaign was more cautious.  The 
group criticized the exclusive license from Bristol-Myers, saying 
that only when there was free competition among many generic 
companies would AIDS drug prices drop to their lowest possible level 
(AP/CNN, Aug. 6).

Aspen's announcement came as South Africa's first national AIDS 
conference ended after four days with an emotional plea to the 
government by an HIV-positive woman to provide AIDS drugs to South 
Africans.

"This is not a political game. We are suffering, we are angry, we 
want access to treatment now," said a tearful Prudence Mabele at the 
closing ceremony.

"I want to have a baby, but I can only do it when nevirapine is 
available," she said (Stuart Graham, Agence France-Presse, Aug. 6).



The South African government currently receives nevirapine from its 
manufacturer Boehringer Ingleheim at no charge, and will for the next 
three years.

An estimated 8,000 babies in South Africa are born to HIV-infected 
mothers every month.  Few live beyond age 4, often needing repeated 
hospital treatment in their short lifespan (Charlene Smith, 
<http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=18251>Mail and Guardian, Aug. 
4).

Top HIV-infected Activist Abandons Protest

Zackie Achmat, an HIV-positive activist who pledged not to take 
antiretroviral drugs in an attempt to force the South African 
government to offer the drug to its people, announced yesterday he is 
abandoning his pledge, his effort having failed, 
<http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-08-04-aids-promise_x.htm>Associated 
Press reported yesterday.

Achmat, 41, head of the Treatment Action Campaign, accused President 
Thabo Mbeki's government of not caring about the lives of those 
infected with HIV/AIDS.

"I am not going to die because they want us to die," Achmat said at 
the AIDS conference in Durban.

Achmat will begin taking cheap, generic versions of AIDS drugs after 
getting some medical tests, a spokesman for TAC said (AP/USA Today, 
Aug. 4).

Dr. Leela McCullough
Director of Information Services

SATELLIFE
30 California Street, Watertown, MA 02472, USA
Tel: +617-926-9400    Fax: +617-926-1212
Email: leela@usa.healthnet.org
Web: http://www.healthnet.org

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