Reuters

Pretoria – GlaxoSmithKline and unlisted German drug maker Boehringer Ingelheim had agreed to allow the widespread manufacture of cheap generic versions of their patented Aids drugs in South Africa, they said yesterday.

In an out-of-court settlement with Aids activists, the firms said they would grant more licences to generic firms to produce and import antiretroviral drugs, which fight the spread of HIV.

Bloomberg reported that Glaxo, based in the UK, would let the manufacturers make the antiretrovirals for a fee of 5 percent of sales, instead of the 30 percent rate it had charged local manufacturer Aspen Pharmacare in a current agreement, the Competition Commission said.

The commission said it was in talks with Boehringer Ingelheim about a similar agreement.

The deal comes after the Competition Commission in October found the firms guilty of anti-competitive behaviour over the sale of Aids drugs and recommended to the Competition Tribunal that they be fined and required to allow the manufacture of generics.

The commission said yesterday it would not fine Glaxo for anti-competitive behaviour and was discussing a similar agreement with Boehringer.

South Africa has more people living with HIV/Aids than any other country – an estimated 5.3 million, equal to 13 percent of the world’s infected.

Last month the government approved a national drug treatment programme to tackle the spread of Aids, finally bowing to pressure to act against an epidemic killing an estimated 600 South Africans each day. This has yet to be implemented. The commission said the deal with Glaxo, which ends a year-long probe, had produced the desired outcome.

"The introduction of generic substitutes should result in a drastic reduction in the prices of antiretroviral drugs," said competition commissioner Menzi Simelane.

"We are pleased with the decision," Glaxo’s senior vice-president, Peter Bains, said in a statement.

A Glaxo spokesperson in London said the company – the world’s biggest maker of Aids drugs – would extend to other firms a voluntary licence it granted to Aspen Pharmacare in October 2001 for the production of antiretrovirals.

Thembalami Pharmaceuticals, a joint venture between Adcock Ingram and India’s Ranbaxy Laboratories, has already been offered another licence.

Glaxo would consider applications for another two licences for the manufacture of copies of its drugs AZT and lamivudine.

The company said it would consider imports to South Africa if this was not practical.

Boehringer would grant three licences for the production and import of nevirapine, the drug used to prevent transmission of the HIV virus from mothers to children – the first of which has already gone to Aspen.

Aspen lost 10c to R12.55 yesterday.
 

Fonte: http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=563&fArticleId=306011
Acessado em 30/11/2006