Mumbai-based pharmaceuticals major Cipla Ltd is in talks with Government Pharmaceuticals Organisation (GPO), a Thailand government owned company, for supplying raw materials for manufacturing HIV/AIDS drugs in Thailand. Early this year, the Thai government has issued compulsory licenses to manufacture various life saving drugs patented by multinational pharmaceutical companies in Thailand.
Instead of providing the compulsory licenses to any other companies, the Thai government is learnt to have decided to manufacture the drugs at its own company, GPO. For manufacturing the drugs, GPO, established under the ministry of public health, is all set to purchase raw materials at lower prices and is also in initials level of talks with Cipla. Earlier, there were reports that Cipla was to supply the Aids drug, Lopimune (lopinavir + ritonavir), a generic version of Kaletra, marketed by US major Abbott to Thailand government. Sighting overpricing reasons, Thai government has issued compulsory licenses to manufacture drugs including Aids drugs like Kaletra and Efavirenz and cardiac drug, Plavix. Lopimune is available at 40-50% lower than the innovative drug, Kaletra.
Acknowledging the development, Amar Lulla, managing director, Cipla, told FE, ?We are in talks with GPO for entering into a supply deal with them and the talks are at a hopeful stage. Once the deal is signed, we will supply raw materials for all the drugs for which compulsory license has been invoked and also for other Aids drugs.? However, he refused to divulge any more details.
In Thailand, about more than 1 lakh out of 5 lakh people living with HIV/Aids depend on GPO-VIR, the cheaper version of the first-line anti-retroviral (ARV) therapy produced by the GPO. An estimated 25,000 HIV-positive people have developed a resistance to the drug, and need the combination drugs of lopinavir and ritonavir.
According to WHO reports, Cipla is the second company which obtained the largest number of registrations for ARV drugs. The company has the largest number of WHO pre-qualified drugs. Cipla is the largest supplier of Aids drugs to Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and malaria, for its free treatment programme.
