Cipla will make AIDS drug for kids

HYDERABAD: Generics major Cipla Ltd will manufacture the first three-in-one cocktail anti-AIDS drug meant for children.

This follows the US Food and Drugs Administration clearing a combination dose of Boehringer Ingelheim’s Viramune (brandname for nevirapine), GlaxoSmithKline’s Epivir (or lamivudine) and Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Zerit (or stavudine) - all anti-retrovirals or drugs that fight AIDS.

The approval came under the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or Pepfar, a $15 billion, 5-year programme to fight the scourge in more than 15 countries.

“The problem is massive and children have been by far ignored till now as there were no right dosages available for supply,” Amar Lulla, managing director, Cipla, said.

This is the first pediatric dosage of the combination and given that only 50,000 children are under treatment currently, the goal is to reach 10 times the number, he told DNA Money.

Lulla said money making was not the objective here, when queried how much profit the company would be making by supplying the drug.

The Pepfar programme is unique in the sense generics makers such as Cipla can make still-under-patent drugs for supply to countries mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, which are the worst affected by HIV/AIDS at highly subsdised prices.

Cipla was the first company in 2001 to radically bring down the price of anti-AIDS triple combination drugs from $12,000 per patient per year to below $1 per day challenging the multinationals.
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