E-DRUG: Pfizer and South Africa will sign fluconazole deal
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[from the South African newspapers, copied as fair use:
http://www.iol.co.za/html/frame_news.php?set_id=1&click_id=125
WB]
HIV and Aids drug deal to be signed on Friday
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang will on Friday sign an agreement with the pharmaceutical company Pfizer on the supply of Fluconazole, a drug used to treat HIV and Aids patients suffering from opportunistic infections.
The details of the agreement would be announced during the official signing of the agreement on World Aids Day on December 1, according to a statement issued by the health department.
"This anti-fungal agent will be used for treating HIV/Aids patients for different opportunistic diseases, including cryptococcal meningitis, in government hospitals and clinics," the statement said.
Spokesperson Sibani Mngadi said the announcement followed lengthy negotiations with Pfizer after the company offered to provide Fluconazole to Aids patients with cryptococcal meningitis free of charge in April this year.
Mngadi could not say whether the agreement meant the drug would be provided free of charge.
"The details will be made public on Friday," he said.
The agreement follows demands by the Treatment Action Campaign that fluconazole be made available in South Africa.
TAC supporters last week campaigned outside the Groote Schuur hospital in Cape Town to demand that a batch of illegally imported drugs be used on Aids patients.
TAC member Zackie Achmat allegedly smuggled the drugs, a generic equivalent of Fluconazole, into South Africa from Thailand in October.
The TAC then asked the Medicines Control Council for special permission to allow doctors to use the generic medicine, called Biozole.
Sapa
Dr Wilbert Bannenberg
Coordinator, SA Drug Action Programme
Tel +27-12-3120374/5 (office), +27-82-5756249 (mobile)
Fax +27-12-3236745
Email work: Bannew@health.gov.za
Email private: WilbertBannenberg@compuserve.com
Snailmail: Hallmark 937, P/Bag X 828, Pretoria 0001, South Africa
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