Canadian to ship AIDS drugs to Rwanda for first, perhaps last time

From the Vancouver Sun:
Seven million pills will leave Toronto Wednesday bound for Rwanda, the first and perhaps the last shipment of generic, low-cost drugs to treat HIV-AIDS produced under Canada's Access to Medicine Regime (CAMR).

This is the first time any manufacturer in any country has used such a licensing framework to get essential medicine to people in the developing world.

But Apotex, the drug manufacturer that produced the pills, says the Canadian legislation - and the World Trade Organization regulations it's based on - has created such a complicated, costly system, the company won't be doing it again unless the regulations are changed.

"It took us more than four years just to get to this point," says Elie Betito, director of public affairs for Apotex, the generic-drug manufacturer supplying the pills. "It's a huge process, with huge costs involved.

"We will not be doing this again."

The process began when humanitarian organization Medecins Sans Frontieres asked Apotex to produce a generic version of several costly, brand-name antiretroviral medications - treatments easily accessible to patients in the developed world and proven to prolong the life of most AIDS patients for years. ...more

First batch of AIDS meds leaves for Africa

From the Winnipeg Sun:
The first batch of Canadian-made AIDS drugs will leave for Africa this week, four years after the federal government established a program to get cheaper medications into the hands of patients in poor countries.

The shipment from generic drug giant Apotex Inc., will likely start its journey to Rwanda on Wednesday.

Apotex says it plans to send another batch of medication to Africa next year, but says the company won’t participate in the program any more until the government fixes laws that have left the initiative bogged down in red tape.

Canada’s Access to Medicines Regime was passed in 2004 with much fanfare and heralded internationally as an opportunity for Canada to be a major player in the global fight against disease in poor countries.

The government promised access to first-world therapies at reduced prices by getting brand-name pharmaceutical firms to negotiate with generic drug makers and allow the generics to manufacture cheaper AIDS drugs. ...more

EA awash in bogus malaria medicine, says study

From the (Nairobi, Kenya) East African:
Roughly one-third of the malaria drugs sold at chemists in East Africa’s capital cities are ineffective, a new study has foundTests on a total of 195 packs of malaria medicines bought in Dar es Salaam, Kampala, Kigali, Nairobi and two West African cities showed that 35 per cent either lacked sufficient amounts of active ingredients or did not dissolve quickly enough to work.

The incidence of ineffective drugs was highest in Kenya, with 38 per cent of the 42 packets purchased in Nairobi found to be sub-standard.

Tanzania’s rate was lowest, at 32 per cent, followed by Rwanda, a 33 per cent and Uganda, at 35 per cent.The malaria drugs most likely to fail quality tests were those manufactured in Africa, researchers said.

Nearly half of those medicines were found to be deficient, compared with 24 per cent of drugs of European origin.

The comparative weakness of regulatory systems in Africa may account for the difference, researchers suggest.They also report that 33 per cent of the tested packets contained only artemisinin, an anti-malarial agent produced in China and regarded as an especially promising treatment. ...more