Your daily Selection of IRIN Africa PlusNews reports, 8/31/2005

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CONTENT:

1 - GHANA: Government ploughs ahead with plans to produce AIDS drugs locally

1 - GHANA: Government ploughs ahead with plans to produce AIDS drugs locally

ACCRA, 31 August (PLUSNEWS) - A new plant has begun production of antiretroviral

(ARV) drugs as part of government plans to expand distribution of the life

prolonging treatment for its HIV-positive citizens.

Pharmaceutical company Dan - a joint venture between Danpong

Pharmaceuticals of Ghana and Pharmaceuticals of China - has begun

production of the generic versions of the ARVs from a new plant outside the

capital Accra.

Generic drugs are not restricted by patent laws but are identical in content and

substantially cheaper than the brand-name drug, according to the World Health

Organisation (WHO).

Under Ghanaian law, only the government will be able to buy the generic drugs,

which have met standards for distribution set by the state Food and Drugs Board

(FDB).

" We are collecting our letter of approval (from the FDB) to officially deal in

these drugs in Ghana today, " Yaw Adu Gyamfi, Chief Executive officer of Dan

told IRIN on Tuesday.

The government is currently spending about US $6 million of state funds to

provide ARVs to 2,600 patients, according to Gyamfi.

But once the government starts buying the Dan drugs, the bill for the same

treatments for the same number of people will drop by 45 percent to about US

$3.37 million, Gyamfi said.

However, most ARV treatments distributed in Ghana are paid for with money

donated by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria which

insists on production quality tests by the WHO before setting up a purchase

order.

The Global Fund has approved over US $47 million of funds for health projects in

Ghana. Over US $14 million of that is to be directed to a programme to

accelerate access to prevention, care, support and treatment of all persons

affected by HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria with a special HIV/AIDS element.

Edith n of the WHO in Ghana told IRIN that the Fund's assessment process had

begun, but could take a long time before a conclusion is reached.

" It takes quite some time as it depends on the manufacturer's production quality

which can vary from one manufacturer to another, " n said.

The first assessments of the Dan plant will begin in September, said n,

but she could give no indication when or if Global Fund money would be used to

purchase the drugs.

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