Enaleni unveils 3-in-1 Aids drug
2006-04-24 11:53
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UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned governments against using the economic crisis as an excuse to cut funding for fighting Aids.
Johannesburg - South African pharmaceutical firm Enaleni's generic drug maker Cipla Medpro unveiled on Monday a three-in-one combination of a first-line HIV/Aids treatment regimen in the country.
The company said in a statement that the drug Triomune was the first ever three-in-one combination of a first line recommended treatment for HIV/Aids in the country, and that it would also improve patient adherence and save more lives.
The drug contains lamivudine, nevirapine and stavudine - three different anti-HIV/Aids medicines in one tablet, reducing the daily pill burden from six or more tablets per day to only one pill in the morning and one at night, the company said.
"Triomune will also enable the lowering of total costs, including production, storage, transport, dispensing and other healthcare costs, which will help in scaling up access to anti-HIV/Aids treatment programmes in the country," it said.
Activists say 900 South Africans die of Aids-related diseases every day and official data estimates that 5.6 million of the country's 45 million people are infected with HIV, the virus that leads to Aids.
Enaleni last year bought Cipla Medpro for R1.2bn.
Cipla was a privately owned supplier of generic medicines including life-prolonging Aids drugs and is the fifth-largest supplier of pharmaceutical products in South Africa.
Adcock Ingram, which is owned by food and drugs group Tiger Brands, and Africa's biggest generic drugs maker, Aspen, hold the top two spots in generic drug making.
- Reuters