Kenyan Co Signs Deal With Boehringer To Make AIDS Drug
Associated Press - October 1, 2004
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NAIROBI -- A Kenyan company has signed an agreement with a German pharmaceutical company to make generic versions of a drug to treat AIDS and to help prevent transmission of the HIV virus from mother to child, its managing director said Friday.
Kenya will be the second country in sub-Saharan Africa to produce nevirapine locally. Two South African companies, as well as an Egyptian firm, already make generic versions of nevirapine under license from patent-holder Boehringer Ingelheim (BRI.YY).
Cosmos Ltd. signed a license agreement Tuesday with Boehringer Ingelheim to produce nevirapine for sale in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, said Managing Director Prakesh Patel.
"We will start producing nevirapine within two to three weeks," Patel told The Associated Press. In Ingelheim, Germany, a spokeswoman for Boehringer Ingelheim, Judith von Gordon, said the company had concluded negotiations with Cosmos Sept. 15, but had not yet received the signed agreement from Cosmos.
Von Gordon said Cosmos will be expected to produce nevirapine to be combined with other drugs to treat AIDS patients. Nevirapine also is used to help prevent transmission of the virus that causes AIDS from mother to child.
Von Gordon said Boehringer Ingelheim would continue with its program of donating doses for mother-to-child use. The company has a donation program covering 54 countries.
Patel said he was unable to say how much the Cosmos version of the drug will cost, only saying it would certainly be competitive compared to world prices of the drug.
Boehringer Ingelheim negotiated the deal so that nevirapine could be produced more cheaply and be affordable in the local market, von Gordon said.
"They produce, for example in South Africa or Egypt, the drug at a cheaper price than we can here in Germany," she said. "This is really a big step forward to giving patients access to cheaper drugs."
Last year Boehringer Ingelheim sold nevirapine worth EUR310 million worldwide, said von Gordon.
In Kenya, between 30 and 40% of babies born to infected mothers become HIV positive, according to the government.
An estimated 2.2 million Kenyans of a population of 30 million are infected with the HIV virus.
The agreement between Cosmos and Boehringer Ingelheim is for a voluntary license.
Poor nations can invoke World Trade Organization rules to issue compulsory licenses of lifesaving drugs for a limited time in cases of national emergency.
Kenya has not used the rules even though former President Daniel arap Moi declared AIDS a national emergency in Kenya in November 1999.
Von Gordon said Cosmos will pay a royalty of less than 10% to produce the drug, to cover additional costs incurred by the German company. "There is no profit involved," von Gordon said.