Kenya permits generic AIDS drug imports

Kenya's Minister for Public Health, Sam Ongeri, has said that he willuse a World Trade Organization clause which allows countries to parallel-import medicines in emergency situations in order to import cheap generic AIDS/HIV medicines.

Speaking on March 6 at the launch of trials of an AIDS vaccine developed by UK and Kenyan researchers (Marketletters passim), Dr Ongeri said: "we cannot operate in a situation where we have an epidemic, a national disaster and be asked to keep on observing the international patent law." Kenya's president, Daniel arap Moi, has declared AIDS to be a national disaster and, with the danger of 20%-50% of the Kenyan population dying of the disease, the government will invoke the clause, said Dr Ongeri. "Therefore, we can have parallel importation and we shall have broken no international convention," he added.

Earlier this month, a US priest working with HIV-positive orphans in Kenya said he planned to import the cut-price HIV/AIDS drugs being offered by Indian generics maker Cipla (Marketletter March 5). Dr Ongeri said at the time that while such a move was illegal in Kenya, he did not expect the government to try to stop the Rev Angelo D'Agostino from importing the drugs, and also revealed that the government would be introducing new legislation to allow international aid agencies to import generic drugs into the country.