Uganda appeals to India over move to amend law on AIDS drugs
BBC Monitoring Service
Mar. 25, 2005

Text of report by Peter Nyanzi entitled "Uganda appeals to India over HIV/Aids drugs" published by Ugandan newspaper The Monitor web site on 25 March

Uganda's Ministry of Health has appealed to the international community to intervene to save lives of thousands of Ugandans who are using the Indian made ARVs.

The Indian Lower House of Parliament on Tuesday [22 March] passed a bill that will stop Indian pharmaceutical companies from producing generic drugs, including Antiretroviral drugs (ARVs). Generic drugs are cheaper than patent medicine. The new bill will go to the Upper House (Rajya Sabha) for a final vote. It is anticipated that the Upper House will approve the bill in its current form.

About 30,000 HIV infected Ugandans are currently on ARVs with the number projected to double by the end of the year. "The international community has to intervene. UNAIDS has set a target of three million people globally to be put on free ARVs by the end of 2005. If the supply of drugs were to be affected, that target would certainly not be achieved. I highly doubt that the international community can allow such a thing to happen," Uganda's director of health services, Prof Francis Omaswa, said by telephone on Wednesday.

He said over 80 per cent of the ARVs consumed by Ugandans are manufactured by Indian companies. He said though other countries like Brazil manufacture ARVs, a shortfall from India would cause an immediate drug shortage. He said he had high hopes that officials of the Global Fund to fight Aids, World Health Organization (WHO), UNAIDS and other partners would discuss the matter in their consultative meeting due next month.

Some of the ARVs imported from India include Combivir (zidovudine/lamivudine combination), d4T, ddI, nevirapine, and lamivudine. Over 80 members of the National Community for People Living with HIV/AIDS (Nacwola) last week demonstrated at the India high commission against the Indian government for deciding to stop production of the drugs.

India is the world's leading producer of generic anti-retroviral drugs but the government has been under pressure from the World Trade Organization (WTO) to consider alterations to the country's patent law, which would stop production of the generic drugs. Under the new measures, Indian pharmaceutical giants such as Hetero, Ranbaxy and Cipla, which specialize in cheap generic drugs, could face legal action initiated by WTO if they continued manufacturing and selling such drugs. They were given a deadline of up to 1 January 2005 [as received].

India was one of the few drug-manufacturing countries in the world without regulations on patenting, which is one of the reasons the generic drugs had reached large scale production there.

Under International Patent Law, the company that discovers a new prescription medicine obtains a patent for that drug. The patent allows the company to be the exclusive provider of the medicine during the patent's life.

Source: The Monitor web site, Kampala, in English 25 Mar 05

Uganda appeals to India over move to amend law on AIDS drugs
BBC Monitoring Service
Text of report by Peter Nyanzi entitled
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