Policy prevents NACO from ordering paediatric drug

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Policy prevents Naco from ordering drug

Siddhartha D. Kashyap. [Tuesday, January 24, 2006 01:57:04 pm TIMES

NEWS NETWORK]

PUNE: It's been over ten months since the Pune-based Emcure

Pharmaceuticals rolled out the world's first cocktail of three

drugs — Emtri Suspension — for the HIV-infected paediatric

population.

However, the National Aids Control Organisation (Naco) has not been

able to place orders for the drug as a change in the existing policy

is required.

While Naco's additional project director, Dr N.S. Dharamshaktu, was

not available for comment despite repeated attempts by TOI, another

senior official said that without a change in the policy on purchase

order for new drugs, no orders could be placed.

Naco is the nodal agency which procures anti-retrovirals (ARVS) in

bulk and distributes it to HIV/AIDS patients through government

oraganisations in the country.

Named as Emtri Suspension, the three-drug cocktail — Lamivudine,

Stavudine and Nevirapine — is already being exported to African

countries like Kenya and Tanzania.

A few state AIDS control societies, including Maharashtra, have

placed orders for the paediatric formulation. Director (operations)

of Emcure Pharmaceuticals, A.K. Khanna, when contacted, confirmed

his company was yet to receive any orders from Naco.

According to a report published by UNAIDS, India had 55,000 children

infected with the virus till December 2004. Private agencies

involved in the care and treatment of HIV/AIDS patients said the

government's lack of response was unfortunate.

" With the rate of paediatric HIV infection in the country as high as

15 to 20 per cent (some African nations also have a similar

prevalence rate), compared to 2 per cent in the developed countries,

it is only foolhardy not to make this drug available to the needy, "

said Subhashree Raghavan, founder and executive trustee, Saathi

(Solidarity and action against the HIV infection in India).

A member of the Network of Positive People Living with HIV/AIDS

(INP+) regretted the delay in making Emtri Suspension easily

available to the infected paediatric population.

Till recently, there wasn't any paediatric formulation, and now when

we have one, no steps are being taken to make it readily available, "

the member said.

City-based expert Sanjay Pujari had earlier told TOI that there were

fewer options to treat HIV/AIDS-infected children. " The drugs

available in the market are mostly capsules and hard-tomeasure

syrups meant for adults.

Therefore, it is difficult to administer it to children, " he said,

explaining that the absence of standardised dosing schedules for

children was another hurdle, adding to the medical complications.

According to Khanna, the combination drug is priced at about Rs 500

per month for therapy in the Indian market. " Even before the launch,

we never expected it to be a blockbuster product (both in terms of

volumes and profit), " he said, however, adding that it may take some

more time before Naco places an order with it.

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