Glaxo grants SA firm an Aids drug licence
GlaxoSmithKline has granted a fourth voluntary licence to a South African generics firm to market its anti-Aids medicines, the world's leading supplier of HIV and Aids drugs said on Monday.

"GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has granted a voluntary licence to generics company Biotech Laboratories for the manufacture and sale of some of its antiretrovirals," the British-based company said in a statement.

Biotech will be able to supply the antiretrovirals - credited with extending the lives of Aids-sufferers - to both the public and private markets in all of sub-Saharan Africa under the terms of its agreement.

Africa is the continent hardest hit by the HIV and Aids pandemic and South Africa's case-load of over five million infected people is the world's largest.

Local production of cheap generic drugs is viewed as increasingly important as more countries around the world seek to make Aids treatments widely available.

GSK said the move underlined its commitment to broadening access to antiretroviral medicines. But critics have contended that its voluntary licensing schemes have failed to get cheap drugs to those in need.