Urgent letter to NACO: Drug reactions from Emcure’s Emtri drug

[Guest guest]

23-02-06

Dr. Sujatha Rao

Additional Secretary & Director General

National AIDS Control Organization (NACO)

Ministry of Health & Family Welfare

Government of India, 9th Floor, Chandra Lok Buildings

# 36, Janpath, New Delhi – 110 001

Dear Madam,

Greetings from MILANA!

I am writing this letter on behalf of MILANA – A Family Support

Network of People Living with HIV & AIDS in Bangalore. MILANA aims

to build an enabling environment for people living with HIV & AIDS

and thus help them live a life of dignity and respect. We would like

to share with you a few observations we have come across concerning

some of our members who are on ARVs. We have 265 families enrolled

in our Network of which 56 members are on ARVs. Out of these, 30

members avail ARV treatment from the Free ARV Rollout Program of the

Government at Bowring Hospital, Bangalore.

Of late, quite a number of members have reported drug reactions from

Emcure's Emtri drug that is being given by the ARV unit. We

interviewed 20 out of 30 of our members who are taking ARV treatment

from Bowring Hospital. About 50% of them have been having reactions

from the drug Emtri. Prior to this, the drug Cipla's Triomune 30

triple-combination was administered to the patients. The common

reactions reported among all the members to Emtri are swollen

extremities, cough, vomiting, weakness, and tiredness, loss of

appetite, headaches, skin allergies and giddiness.

As a network working with HIV positive people, we are greatly

concerned about the health of each and every member in our network

and these side effects are worrying. We are aware that some bodily

reactions are common when a patient is on ARV medication, but the

magnitude of the number of people having reactions together have

urged us to write to you.

We hope that you will take the appropriate steps.

We look forward to hearing from you soon and to your kind

cooperation.

Yours sincerely

Jyothi Kiran

E-mail: <milana_bgl@...>

On behalf of MILANA

Annex: signature of the network members

Copy to Mrs. T. Mukthamba, Project Director, KSAPS

[Guest guest]

Dear FORUM,

This is with reference to the message of Dr.Giladas posted on AIDS

India Forum dated 9-3-06 on EMTRI reactions. At the outset we want

to make it very understandable that the correspondence to NACO on

Emtri reactions should not be considered a slanderous campaign

against any pharmaceutical companies and does not nullify the

quality of any generic drugs. We as a network of people living with

HIV and AIDS are only concerned about the health of each and every

member and not interested in any crusade against anyone.

We are aware of the bodily reactions that occur when a person is on

ARVs, which is specifically mentioned in our letter. Our letter is

just a request to the concerned authorities to respond by taking

investigative steps. It's the people who are on ARV reporting some

serious side effect after taking Emcure drugs.

The same people who report this side effect were on Cipla drugs

prior to Emcure and no complaints came in. The people have made

repeated complaints to the doctors, but no answers.

It's the people who are suffering. Where do they go and what do they

do , they are silent sufferers. To quote one of our network

members " --------we have started the medicine, we know once

started cannot be stopped and we do not know what to do now "

To bring up to date you, the vice President of Emicure along with

his colleague visited our office to hear the voices of our

network members experiencing bodily reactions.

On behalf of MILANA

Jyothi Kiran

E-mail: <milana_bgl@...>

MILANA- a family support network of people living with HIV and AIDS