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Cipla to supply $3.5 mn AIDS drugs to Nigeria

Drugmaker Cipla Ltd, which startled global drug firms in February by offering to supply AIDS drugs to a charity at less than $1.00 a day, said on Wednesday it would supply $3.5 million worth of AIDS drugs to Nigeria.

Cipla joint managing director Amar Lulla said the company had signed a deal with the Nigerian ministry of health, and he expected the first consignment to be shipped this month.

"I'm happy supply to Africa is starting," he said. "We are in talks with several African governments to supply our AIDS drugs."

The drugs will be used to treat 10,000 Nigerian patients initially, he said.

He said the cost worked out to $350 per patient per year.

Cipla had offered an anti-AIDS cocktail -- comprising the drugs lamivudine, stavudine and nevirapine -- at $350 per patient per year to international charity Medecins Sans Frontieres provided MSF gave the drugs away free.

Lulla said Cipla was now extending the offer to governments.

The exports come at a time when the much larger South African market for AIDS drugs is opening up to generic drugmakers like Cipla.

On April 19, the world's biggest drugmakers abandoned a bid to stop South Africa from importing cheap copies of their AIDS drugs by withdrawing a court case opposing implementation of a new South African drug law.

One analyst forecast that Cipla could sell as much as $50 million of AIDS drugs in South Africa in the first 12 months after exports started.

On Monday, South Africa took the first steps towards sourcing cheap AIDS drugs from India when Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang signed an agreement which said her country would co-operate with India on treating AIDS and other diseases.

Cipla has applied for permissions to market its AIDS drugs in South Africa. Cipla has already supplied a consignment of drugs to MSF for distribution in Cambodia.

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