Cipla gearing up for AIDS-related drugs

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Cipla gearing up for AIDS-related drugs

The Business Line 13th December, 2001-New Delhi

CIPLA Ltd. the supplier of cheap drugs to a large Nigerian AIDS Wednesday it now

planned to supply affordable drugs to treat opportunistic diseases resulting

from AIDS. Cipla is supplying anti-AIDS drugs to a programme to treat 10,000

Nigerian patients at a concessional price of less than $1 a day, a thirtienth of

the price of the drugs in the United States. " In addition to the anti-AIDS

drugs, we have started the supply of small quantities of fluconazole, a

treatment for fungal infections in AIDS patients, to the charity Medecins Sans

Frontieres, " Cipla's Chairman, Mr. Y.K Hamied, told Reuters. The Nigerian

programme, the biggest in Africa, was scheduled to start on Monday, but has been

delayed.

The Mumbai-headquartered Cipla, India's second-ranked drugmaker by market share,

shook the global drugs market when it made its offer of cheap anti-AIDS drugs in

February, and prompted a series of price cuts by large drug multinationals. It

is now offering 200 mg tablets of fluconazole, a generic copy of Pfizer's

price. " If we're approached, we can also supply drugs to treat cancer, pneumonia

and tuberculosis in AIDS patients at a fraction of international prices, " Mr.

Hamied said. GlaxoKline controls the patents on lamivudine, one of the

drugs in a three-drug anti-AIDS cocktail Cipla is offering.

Bristol-Myers Squibb controls the patent on stavudine, the second drug in the

melange, and Germany's Boehringer Ingelheim that on nevirapine. More AIDS

initiatives Mr. Hemied said Cipla wanted to broaden its initiatives in AIDS

treatment. It has offered to conduct largescale clinical trials in India of an

anti-AIDS vaccine being developed in the US. " We plan to launch a home AIDS

detection kit and supply it cheap to poor AIDS sufferers all over the world, " he

said. Cipla's plans to supply anti-AIDS drugs could get a boost with the visit

of a United Nations inspection team in November, he said. " We had our facilities

inspected by the United Nations Children's Fund, and we're likely to be an

approved supplier through them of anti-AIDS drugs to countries where patents

don't apply or where they've expired, " he said. As many as 25 countries have

started importing Cipla's cheap anti-AIDS drugs, and some countries were

interested in the process technology, which Cipla would offer free, he said. The

company has also offered to supply South African mining giant, Anglo American

Plc, drugs to treat its workers once Cipla's anti-AIDS products are registered

in South Africa.

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Jagdish Harsh ( jharsh@... )

François-Xavier Bagnoud (INDIA) ( www.fxb.org )

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