E-DRUG: Letter- Civil Society delegations to UNITAID Board, to CEO of BMS (2)
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Dear all,
The didanosine powder for solution produced by BMS or Aurobindo is
difficult to use in resource limited settings due to logistics reasons. The
main problems are:
- The solution (both BMS and Aurobindo) needs to be reconstituted by
adding 100ml purified water to 2g powder and immediately mix with
antacid to get final concentration of 10mg/ml. Both purified water
and antacid are not provided by the manufacturers hence logistically
difficult to handle in practice. It is also quite difficult to teach
mothers how to reconstitute it
- After reconstitution, the solution needs to be refrigerated at 2-8°C
and expired within a month. The lack of refrigeration in countries
adds another layer of difficulty
For those reasons the ddi 25 mg chewable/dispersible tablet is much more
convenient for use in kids.
It is Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) responsibility to decide which products they should procure to developing countries. They will need to weigh all the quality and
practicality issues of the different available products in consultation
with the countries for which they are procuring before they make their
decision.
With best regards,
Elodie
Elodie Jambert
Pharmaceutical Coordinator
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)
Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines
Tel: +41 22 849 89 45
Elodie.JAMBERT@geneva.msf.org