Kenyan Firm Plans to Produce Generic AIDS Drugs

A Kenyan drug company plans to begin producing antiretroviral drugs for HIV/AIDS patients next month, becoming the first African company outside South Africa to do so, the company said Wednesday. Pending approval by the Kenyan government, Cosmos Pharmaceuticals will produce AIDS medicines with the brand names Neviriv, Lemurs, Lazidariv, Stariv and Zidocos, said Managing Director Prakash Patel. "They will be economical and affordable, at least better than whatever is being imported," said Patel. Currently, the cheapest course of imported treatment costs about $40 per month in Kenya, where much of the population of around 30 million live on less than a dollar a day. The country has about 2.2 million people with HIV/AIDS, but only 7,000 currently receive antiretroviral therapy.

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