Cipla may build plant in Tanzania to make AIDS drugs

[Guest guest]

30/06/01 TANZANIA: AIDS Plant Contemplated by Indians

An Indian pharmaceutical company is to complete a study by the end of the year

regarding the possibility of the construction in Tanzania an anti-retrovirus

production factory for AIDS patients. Cipla Ltd would thus move its production

closer to the countries of Eastern and Southern Africa seriously affected by the

virus inorder to make its medicines more easily accessible to local patients.

In addition, the Mumbai-based company is offering Médecins Sans Frontières

(Doctors Without Borders, or MSF) to sell the French NGO a combination of three

medicines for $350 per patient per year. The cost of the triple anti-AIDS

therapy would be $600 per year for governments while the lowest price offered by

the biggest pharmaceutical companies for a similar treatment is over $3,600 per

year.

Headed by foreign minister Jakaya Kikwete, a Tanzanian delegation recently

traveled to India to visit the Cipla factory. In turn, a delegation from the

company is expected in Tanzania for an evaluation mission within the next few

months. The anti-retroviruses currently on sale on the Tanzanian market are from

Western companies and sell for $600 each. An initial arrival of Indian-made

generic anti-AIDS medicines imported by the Salama Pharmaceutical Ltd company

was expected in Tanzania recently, to be sold for 60,000 to 80,000 shillings per

monthly dose ($1 = 820 shillings).

ION - The Cipla company is in discussions with other African governments

(Cameroon, Niger, Uganda, Zimbabwe) regarding the sale of its anti-AIDS

medicine. What will probably emerge from the negotiations will be the location

of

the anti-retrovirus production factory. As for the big Western pharmaceutical

companies, they accuse companies like Cipla of failing to respect their patents

and of illegally copying their medicines to sell the copies

for a lower price.

THE INDIAN OCEAN NEWSLETTER N° 956