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India's largest pharmaceutical company, Ranbaxy, has voluntarily withdrawn all its anti-AIDS drugs from the World Health Organisation's (WHO) list of "prequalified" medicines.
Ranbaxy decided to remove its seven generic medications from the WHO list because it could not guarantee that these drugs were as potent as the more expensive brand-name versions.
The decision is expected to affect tens of thousands of people who recently started treatment in developing countries, and may also cause some countries to question the trustworthiness of the WHO prequalification system.
The Washington Post quoted Paul Lalvani, procurement services manager of the Global AIDS Fund, as saying: "It's likely to cause a lot of confusion in countries and ministries of health."
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