Cipla offers low cost AIDS drug

By Our Staff Correspondent

MUMBAI, FEB. 14. The Mumbai-based Cipla has offered to supply its `triple therapy drug cocktails' to a doctor's group working in Africa for the treatment of Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

Cipla has offered `Medicines sans Frontiers' (MsF) or `Doctors Without Borders' the AIDS therapy drugs for $350 per patient per annum as against a normal cost of the AIDS cocktail of $10,000- 15,000 per patient per annum. In Africa, MsF has set up a small pilot programme to develop models for broader approaches to combat AIDS and will distribute the drugs sourced from Cipla free of cost. MsF has about 40 AIDS projects all over the world with 20 being located in Africa and is the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999 for work in war-torn impoverished areas.

Also as part of its programme, Cipla will also sell the drugs to larger government programmes for around $600 per patient per annum which is about $400 below the price offered by companies that hold the patents for the drugs. It is already selling the AIDS cocktails in India at around $1,100 per annum.

Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Amar Lulla, joint managing director, Cipla said, ``Our costs are closer to around $600 per patient per annum. But we are doing this as a responsible corporate citizen. There is a distinction between a charitable and a commercial cause.''

Cipla has a huge capacity for the manufacture of the drugs and, according to Mr. Lulla, ``it depends on how much MsF wants to pick up from us depending on their budgets.'' Cipla officials are scheduled to meet with MsF officials later this month to discuss the quantum of the order.

The drugs being made by Cipla are currently under patent and the company offering to sell at a fraction of the prices to MsF has unsettled the drug majors the world over. The AIDS cocktail is a combination of any three of nine protease inhibitors which suppress the HIV virus. Cipla's combination includes two tablets of 40 mg. of Stavudine, two tablets of 150 mg of Lamivudine and two tablets of 200 mg of Nevirapine. While Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. of the U.S. holds the patent for Stavudine, Glaxo-Wellcome of the U.K. holds the patent for Lamivudine and Boehringer Ingelheim of Germany holds the patent for Nevirapine.

Cipla last year tried to sell Duovir, the generic version of Glaxo's Combivir in Ghana, Africa. But when Glaxo threatened to sue the company, Duovir was withdrawn by Cipla. The company's move to sell to MsF who will then distribute the drugs free is one way to circumvent the problem.

Cipla has among the best research & development facilities in the country and is also into chiral chemistry (the process of producing a superior version of an existing drug). The company has already filed ANDAs (Abbreviated New Drug Application) for eight formulations in the U.S. markets including therapeutic segments such as asthma, cardiovascular and cancer. It is also working for NDDS (Novel Drug Delivery Systems) in the domestic market.

Cipla has performed well for the nine month period ended December 2000 (April-December) clocking a 40 per cent increase in net profit at Rs. 144 crores on a sales of Rs. 787 crores which was up 34 per cent. Its operating profit for the period was also up 37 per cent at Rs. 207 crores.

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