Healthy Skepticism Library item: 12314

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Publication type: news

Doherty D.
Roche Helps African, Asian Companies Make AIDS Drug
Bloomberg.com 2007 Jan 9
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601202&sid=aHkHmxVBch1I&refer=healthcare

Full text:

Roche Holding AG, the world’s biggest maker of cancer medicines, said it will teach four more companies in Africa and Asia how to make one of its AIDS medicines.

Regal Pharmaceuticals in Kenya, CAPS Holdings Ltd. in Zimbabwe, Shelys Pharmaceuticals in Tanzania and Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd. in Bangladesh will gain free access to manufacturing knowledge used to make Roche’s saquinavir HIV treatment, the Basel, Switzerland-based company said today in an e-mailed statement.

More than 96 percent of the people infected with HIV live in low- and middle-income countries and only about a third of those who need medicines have access to them, according to data from the World Health Organization. Starting in 2000, in response to pressure from health activists worldwide, drugmakers such as GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Merck & Co. and Roche have tried to increase the number of people who get the medicine by cutting prices and helping with the manufacture of cheaper generics.

Roche will send teams to work at all four manufacturing facilities. The companies will be able to produce saquinavir, also known as Invirase, for supply throughout sub-Saharan Africa and to those countries defined by the United Nations as the least developed.

Roche has signed such agreements with nine companies in developing countries over the past two years and is considering applications from 35 additional companies.