Drug company benefits from AIDS decision

Aspen Pharmacare, the only company in South Africa licensed to make generic HIV/AIDS drugs, is already benefiting from the government's recent announcement of a national treatment plan. Following a day-long special cabinet meeting late last week, the government proposed a September deadline for the development of a plan to cover the national rollout of HIV/AIDS drugs. Aspen has already made available for sale Aspen-stavudine, a generic version of the Bristol-Myers Squibb drug sold under the brand name Zerit. The local Business Day newspaper quoted the Aspen CEO, Stephen Saad, as saying: "If government puts half a million people on AIDS drugs we could easily cope, as we recently increased our manufacturing capacity by 3 billion, to 5 billion tablets a year." He said the licence also enabled the company to market the generic HIV/AIDS drug in the public and private sectors throughout Africa.