[procaare] Ugandan Company to Produce Anti-Retrovirals

[IRIN <procaare@healthnet.org>]

Local Company Undertakes to Produce Anti-Retrovirals
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
November 5, 2003, Kampala
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Uganda's estimated 100,000 people living with AIDS, who are in urgent need of
anti-retrovirals (ARVs) but cannot afford them could soon have access to locally produced
ARVs at a cost of less than 50 US cents per day, according to a Ugandan company planning
to produce the drugs.

The Kampala-based Quality Chemicals (QC), which for the past three months has been
importing generic ARVs from Indian-based Cipla Pharmaceuticals, told IRIN on Wednesday
that it planned to set up a factory to manufacture ARVs before the end of next year.

"We are working closely with the Ministry of Health and [the] Uganda AIDS Commission to
have this facility in place," the QC managing director, Emmanuel Katongole, told IRIN.
"Our proposal is still being negotiated with Cipla. What is important is that everyone -
us, the patients, the government, the aid agencies, and our suppliers in Cipla - wants
this to happen. We should be able to find a way."

He said both companies were examining the project's commercial prospects with a view to
slashing the price as low as low as possible, while still retaining some profit.

He added that the project was needed not just to cut the price of the drugs, but in order
to make sure that ARVs were "continuously available, and can be planned for, not subject
to sporadic imports".

But AIDS campaigners have urged caution over such claims, warning that the move towards
producing ARVs in Uganda could take longer than either the companies or the Ugandan
government are willing to admit.

"There are a lot of things that have to be done before you can start producing drugs in a
factory," said Rosette Mutambi of the Coalition for Health Promotion and Social
Development. "I don't see how they will get this up so fast. I suspect this is partly a
publicity exercise for the company. In the meantime, we need to look at getting our hands
on cheaper drugs and more of them."

At the 11th conference of the Global Network for People Living with HIV/AIDS, which took
place in Kampala last week, participants unveiled a bid by the Clinton Foundation which,
they said, had managed to procure ARVs at between US $120 and $140 for a year's treatment.
Meanwhile, in an interview with IRIN, the Ugandan government made its first commitment to
a proactive policy of importing generic ARVs.

The price of ARVs in Uganda recently fell to less than a dollar a day ($24 per month),
following the signing of the Doha 2001 international trade agreement, which allowed Cipla
to export the drugs to Uganda through QC.

Copyright © 2003 UN Integrated Regional Information Networks. All rights reserved.

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