E-drug: Nigeria buying generics for AIDS treatment
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http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/30/international/africa/30NIGE.html
November 30, 2001
[Copied as fair use. KM]
Nigeria Buying Generic Drugs for an AIDS Treatment Trial
By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
BUJA, Nigeria, Nov. 29 - Nigeria will begin a trial program next month to
use cheap, imported generic drugs to treat people infected with the virus
that causes AIDS, a top official said today.
The spread of AIDS in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country with 120
million people, had been slower than countries in southern and eastern
Africa, but the country is fast becoming one of the most affected on the
continent.
A new report shows an alarming rise in cases of H.I.V. and AIDS, with the
number of people infected now at 3.47 million, up from 2.7 million in 1999,
the deputy health minister, Amina Ndalolo, said here today as she announced
the new program.
With activists in South Africa taking the government to court to demand the
distribution of an anti- AIDS drug to all H.I.V.-positive pregnant women,
the moves in Nigeria are expected to be watched with interest across the
continent and around the world.
The use of imported generic drugs - produced in India by the groups Cipla
and Rambazy at a fraction of the cost of Western-produced drugs - was only
made possible after a court case in South Africa in April.
But the South African government, which has concerns over the efficacy of
any treatment regime based on the drugs, has balked at procuring the drugs
for the country.
Attempting to combat the spread of AIDS, Nigeria negotiated a deal earlier
this year, after playing host to an AIDS summit meeting, with two Indian
drug companies to import generic anti-AIDS medicine at a cost of $350 per
year per patient.
The government also licensed the drugs' commercial importation, in a program
that will be strictly controlled to prevent counterfeiting.
The trial of the drugs, which officials had scheduled to start several
months ago, will begin Dec. 10, Ms. Ndalolo said.
The government will start treatment at 18 centers across the country with a
"limited number" of patients for the first three months to ensure the
medical staff involved can handle the procedures, she said.
The plan will be gradually expanded to include 100 centers. But the number
of patients to be covered in the first year - 10,000 - was scaled back from
the initial figure of 15,000, which was thought to be too ambitious,
officials said.
In addition, the government plans to strengthen services for people living
with the disease to reduce the stigma attached to it, and to begin a plan
aimed at preventing mother-to- child transmission.
Nigeria considered itself somehow immune to AIDS, with many dismissing it as
a "white man's disease," until the death in 1997 of the popular Afro-beat
musician, Fela Kuti.
Today, Ms. Ndalolo said, "The national average H.I.V. prevalence is 5.8
percent among our adult population," up from 5.4 percent in 1999. In Abuja,
the capital, AIDS had gone from a very low level of infection in the early
stages to 10.2 percent, she said.
Once the infection rate passed 5 percent, AIDS reached the "explosive" phase
of its development, moving from the high-risk groups to the general
population, she said.
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