Breaking the Monopoly
Tanzania Producing Its Own Anti-AIDS Drugs
| U.S. pharmaceutical companies are angry that more and more people will have access to low-cost anti-retroviral drugs. The corporations had been lobbying for monopoly control over various medicines and it is nice to see them lose a little bit of that control. Hats off to countries such as Thailand and Tanzania, that reject the big corporations and develop their own solutions. |
Tanzania has started producing antiretroviral drugs (ARVs), drawing on Thai expertise and Chinese raw materials.
The Arusha-based Tanzania Pharmaceutical Industries (TPI), which is manufacturing the drug, is currently finalising the process of registering it before starting mass distribution.
Tanzania has a population of 37.6 million people, of which 1.6 million are living with HIV/Aids. By 2010, Aids is expected to increase the death rate by more than 50 per cent and life expectancy to drop from 56 years to 47 years.
TPI managing director Ramadhan Madabida told The East-African that a one-month dose of the locally manufactured drugs would be sold at between Tsh15,000 ($15) and Tsh20,000 ($20).
Mr Madibida said he is optimistic that the locally produced ARVs will be accessible to many HIV/Aids patients who would not have accessed them due to cost.
He said that, currently, Thai experts are producing the drugs at the factory but the technical knowledge "will soon be transferred to their local counterparts."
He said Thailand, which started manufacturing the drugs in Bangkok in the early 1990s when imported ARVs were costing about $800 (Tsh800,000) in Tanzania, has managed to bring down the price to only $25.
Tanzania-Thai co-operation in the medical field started four years ago when TPI, using Thai technology and expertise, was able to produce thaitanzunate, a new anti-malarial drug that was launched in 2003.
Thailand has also agreed to co-operate with Tanzania to transfer knowledge and support the production of other drugs, including those for treating malaria and TB.
The ARV project has been made possible through collaboration with a German medical organisation, Action Medeor.
Action Medeor enabled TPI to hire three Swiss experts, one in quality assurance and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and another in product formulation and production process.
The German firm has also entered into an agreement with TPI to distribute the drugs to about 9,000 health centres in sub-Saharan Africa.
TPI has also entered into another agreement with Thai and other international partners to develop educational curricula on African knowledge and utilisation of traditional medicine.
The partners include the Faculty of Oriental Medicine at the University of Rangsit in Thailand, the School of Pharmacy at the Institute of Traditional Medicine of the Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences and the National Institute for Medical Research.
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Also see: A Twelve-Step Program for America
Bedtime in Paradise
Human Genes Owned and Patented for Profit |
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