Re: Urgent letter to NACO: Drug reactions from Emcures Emtri drug

[Guest guest]

Dear Forum Members,

The above cited news about some reactions to Emtri drug in several patients

concerns me. I am really surprised with such findings.

As they are not coming from any doctor/scientific person, I'll not give much

credence to such campains. At best they are slanderous campaigns and harms the

very sanctity of the ARVs from generic companies. With my nearly a decade of

experience in treating HIV/AIDS patients, and using mostly generic ARVs from

different Indian companies, I have never observed such high degree of reactions

to any of the ARVs leave apart Entri.

Please interest such news items/ letters with a great caution.

Dr.I.S.Gilada

E-mail: <ihoaids@...>

[Guest guest]

Dear Forum,

It is highly unfortunate that the experiences of people consuming the drug are

overlooked while forming opinions about drug reactions. In an attempt to look

at the scientific aspects of drug reactions, let us not dilute the validity of

the people suffering from these reactions.

Sowbhagya Somanadhan

E-mail: sowsom@...

[Guest guest]

Dear FORUM,

This ref; Dr.IS Gilada's response to the message " Urgent letter to NACO: Drug

reactions from Emcures Emtri drug "

First all,I completely agreed with him that we have to protect the sanctity of

our Indian cheap and effective ARV produced by Generic Companies.

However,i think he misunderstud the issue, its not a 'campaign " as such as he

called it. Its the community who are on ARV reporting some serious side effect

after taking Emcure drugs.

The same people who report this side effect are on Cipla or Ranbaxy drugs prior

to Emcure and we haven't heard any complain.

Its effecting thier quality of lives so it definitely deserve immediate

attention.

Dr. Gilada, you have 10 years experience of treating people with HIV on generic

drugs and I have been taking ARV since the last 3 years manufactured by our

indian generic companies like Cipla, Ranbaxy, Aurobindo, Hetero, and Emcure as

well.

But you and my experience should aloe not concluded that this drugs can never go

wrong.

Until we get tested (the drugs in question)scientifically to see the quality and

equivalency, we don't know but it seriously raise concern among the people

living with HIV/AIDS.

So i believe that this concern raised by the peole living with HIV/AIDS even

though they are not coming from Doctors and Scientist,thats why it deserve

immediate attention.

Isn't it??????????

regards,

Loon Gangte

Regional Coordinator for South Asia

Collaborative Fund for HIV Treatment Preparedness

INP+ & HRDN

J-50, BK Dutt, Colony, Jorbagh Lane

Jor Bagh, New Delhi-1100 03, INDIA.

Phone No: +91-11-246 522 97 & 98

Mobile: +91-98 11 99 17 27

Fax: +91-11-246 522 9

Email: loon_gangte@...

[Guest guest]

Dear Forum,

There has been apprehension about the reports of side effects of some

medicines by Indian companies like emcure.

It is the duty of people who use it to report any untoward incidents like that

and it is the duty of all of us to analyze the situation scientifically and

systematically.

Even before testing medicines in a lab there many steps to be taken . for eg to

confirm there is a significantly high untoward side effects happening in a

cohort and this is likely to be attributable to the change in the medication.

This is more important in case of a scale up program because

The side effects like peripheral neuropathy and lactic acidosis (which can be

fatal and not given adequate importance in the training manuals) occurs only

after many months of stavudine based ARV.

It is possible that this long-term toxicity is a confounding factor here

especially when many of the features described here can be attributed to

stavudine. We are seeing many cases of neuropathy, gastritis and lactic acidosis

in our patients irrespective of the brand but before making a scientifically

sound opinion I may need more data and strict evaluation on that.

Will somebody wake up and start doing that before startblaming each other (which

is possibly much easier?)

Dr Ajithkumar .K

Medical college Chest Hospital

MG Kav, Trichur

E-mail: <trc_ajisudha@...>

[Guest guest]

Dear FORUM,

There were two postings on the FORUM regarding Adverse Raections

from the drugs of a particular company. The first was on Feb 20th by

the Rajasthan Network of Positive People which was followed up by a

posting on the 23rd of February by MILANA another network of

positive people. Both these letters raise an issue. None of them

have made any conclusive allegations against any company, but have

reported what their members are facing after taking the drug by a

particular company.

If positive people do not have the right to even report the

problems they are facing either with a drug regime that they are

taking or with any other policy issue that affects them then what

rights are we taking about in all these forums and conferences?

Regarding the contention that this is not coming from any

scientific person, let us acknowledge the fact that one of the

wonderful thngs that the AIDS pandemic has done is to demystify

medicine. Today positive people know a lot about treatment and the

illness and in many cases more then doctors themselves, thanks to

the efforts of many to empower them. What the scientific community

has to do is to take these concerns and investigate them to get to

the bottom of the issue and not raise such frivoulous concerns.

Again the generic industry has to be thankful to networks of

positive people who are in a big manner responsible for the

campaigns and opposition to the Patents Amendment Act.

Dr. Gilada himself raises the issue with the observation that with

his vast experience he has not seen such degree of reactions in

anyone on ART. That is the issue in itself. Why is this drug giving

rise to such a degree of adverse reactions which none of the other

companies drugs did (including Cipla's and Ranbaxy's)?

India has had enough experiences in the past of drugs being

substandard and ordinary people suffering as a result of that. It is

the responsibility of all concerned individuals to investigate this

with an open mind and come to a definitive conclusion that mirrors

the truth.

Sunil

Peoples Health Movement.

E-mail: <sunilcssr@...>