Cipla to supply Nigeria with HIV/AIDS drugs

Indian generic drugmaker Cipla says it has agreed a $3.5 million dealwith the Nigerian government to supply a triple-therapy HIV/AIDS drug regimen for $350 per patient per year, down from its earlier offer of $600 a year for sub-Saharan African nations (Marketletter March 5).

Nigeria has an estimated 2.6 million people with the virus, while the figure for the whole of Africa is put at 25 million. On offer from Cipla are generic versions of Boehringer Ingelheim's Viramune (nevirapine), Bristol-Myers Squibb's Zerit (stavudine) and GlaxoSmithKline's Epivir/3TC (lamivudine).

Cipla's joint managing director, Amar Lulla, says the firm is also conducting negotiations with Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Algeria to sell the medicines at much cheaper rates than western companies which hold the patents to the drugs, and adds that it is willing to sell the them even at cost prices to governments wishing to distribute them free to their HIV-infected populations.