Ethiopia to Get UN Support to Produce Antiretroviral Drugs

The World Health Organization has selected Ethiopia and South Africa to receive technological transfer support from UNAIDS, which will enable them to produce and supply reasonably priced antiretroviral drugs to AIDS patients, officials said Tuesday. Ethiopia's Drug Administration and Control Authority has selected two drug manufacturers to produce the drugs shortly, according to Haileselassie Bihon, general manager of the authority. Bihon said that the authority has licensed 2,540 drug retailing institutions that fulfilled the criteria set for selling the Ethiopian-produced antiretrovirals to AIDS patients at minimum cost. About $1 million in grants had been secured from the Italian government, the Irish aid agency Concern, and the Ethiopian government's HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office to enhance the drug quality control and toxicology laboratory, said Bihon.

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