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ZIMBABWE:
Local production of AIDS drugs begins
IRIN PlusNews
June 09, 2004
http://www.irinnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=3499
BULAWAYO - Access
to anti-AIDS drugs is improving in Zimbabwe, due to recent initiatives
to roll-out antiretroviral (ARV) therapy and to manufacture the
medicines locally.
A Zimbabwean
pharmaceutical company has started manufacturing generic antiretroviral
(ARV) drugs in a bid to significantly reduce the cost of the medication
for people living with HIV/AIDS.
Tobias Dzangare,
chief executive of the local drug manufacturing company Varichem,
said his company would produce nine types of generic ARVs in its
factory.
The generic
drugs will cut the cost of ARVs, which are currently mainly imported
from India. A monthly cocktail of ARVs costs Zim $600,000 (US $155)
currently. With the manufacture of local generics, the price is
expected to drop to between Zim $140,000 (US $27) and Zim $160,000
(US $30) a month.
But even at
the reduced price, the drugs remain beyond the reach of most Zimbabweans.
At the launch
of the programme on Monday, Dzangare said his company hoped to ensure
constant availability of the generic ARVs. He urged government to
assist by reducing duties on imported ingredients needed for their
manufacture.
Meanwhile, the
Zimbabwe Red Cross Society announced that it would begin distributing
ARVs to people living with the HI virus as part of its home-based
care programme.
Zimbabwe Red
Cross (ZRC) president, Emma Kundishora, said Zimbabwe was one of
three countries in southern Africa that had been selected for the
pilot programme. She said the ZRC would train its volunteers to
educate its home-based care clients on the proper use of ARVs.
The British
and Danish Red Cross societies, through the International Federation
of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC), have provided the drugs.
Pilot programmes are also being launched in Zambia and Namibia.
Two months ago
the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare launched an ARV therapy
distribution programme at two of its major hospitals in the capital
Harare, and second city Bulawayo.
This week, Health
Minister David Parirenyatwa announced that his department would
expand the ARV roll-out to other health institutions in a bid to
reach more people in need of ARV therapy.
According to
the ministry, about 100 patients at Mpilo Hospital, in Bulawayo,
and 80 patients at Harare Hospital have been receiving free ARVs
since the start of the pilot programme.
Dr Tapiwa Takura,
who is in charge of the ARV therapy distribution at Harare Hospital,
said officials had so far "screened more than 500 patients for the
scheme".
"Those eligible
pay a nominal fee of Zim $50,000 [US $9.34] for them to be taken
on board," Takura explained.
However, activists
in Zimbabwe have called on the government to subsidise the cost
of the drugs.
Tendai Westerhof
of Prominent People Against AIDS Trust (PPAAT) said: "Government
should subsidise the cost of the drugs because the high cost has
impoverished people living with AIDS who need a special diet. Many
poor people are dying because they cannot even afford to by food
for themselves."
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