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Domestic drug makers Cipla, Aurobindo and Matrix Laboratories have emerged as the second-line and paediatric AIDS medicine supply partners to international drug purchase facility UNITAID and Clinton Foundation HIV / AIDS Initiative in 2008. UNITAID and CHAI support HIV / AIDS treatment programmes in over 100 countries worldwide.
The battle is on
The three companies were selected through a competitive bidding process. CHAI had sought proposals from 17 companies in January this year to supply pediatric and second-line drugs to UNITAID projects this year.
The companies will supply the most widely used generic second-line regimen (tenofovir (TDF), lamivudine (3TC) and lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/r) at 19 per cent lesser rates than the amount payed by UNITAID and CHAI in 2007. Similarly, the prices are 16 per cent and 46 per cent lower than the average market prices in low and middle-income countries respectively.
Second-line treatment is required by patients who develop resistance to first-line treatment. Such treatments currently cost five to ten times more than first-line therapies in low-income countries. Nearly 500,000 patients will require these drugs by 2010.
According to CHAI, "Several suppliers agreed to price their drugs on a 'cost-plus' basis and collaborated with CHAI to lower the production costs by securing reduced prices for key raw materials and addressing major chemistry challenges".
CHAI will facilitate a new process of competitive bidding and supplier selection in 2009 and further price reductions are expected by the end of 2008", the agency said.
Cipla's joint managing director Amar Lulla said his company continues to be in the list of preferred medicine suppliers by virtue of its product quality.
"It is not the price alone that matters. These agencies focus on quality as well. We have been supplying medicines to CHAI and UNITAID ever since they launched the programme," Lulla added. He refused to quantify the possible revenues from the deal.
An estimated two lakh HIV/AIDS children and adults are benefitting from UNITAID and CHAI. The UNITAID and CHAI also signed an agreement with Matrix, a division of the US-based Mylan, for the supply of a new first-line AIDS medicine combination, zidovudine (AZT)-based fixed dose combination (FDC) at a price of $66.
UNITAID is an international drug purchase facility established by Brazil, Chile, France, Norway and the United Kingdom in 2006 and now covers 27 countries.
