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An anti-AIDS drug row has erupted between Zimbabwean AIDS activists and the government following a move by authorities to outlaw the import of low-cost antiretroviral drugs.
The activists allege that the state-controlled Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MACS) barred the entry of the Indian-made drug, Evilest, at Harare international airport last November to promote the sale of a locally manufactured drug.
Lynda Francis, executive director of The Centre, an NGO catering to the nutritional and medicinal needs of HIV-positive people, said hundreds of lives were endangered when the drugs were impounded by the MACS.
Francis was quoted by a local newspaper, the Zimbabwe Standard, as saying: "The MACS has now totally prohibited us from importing the Evilest drug, claiming the medicine's quality is not up to scratch. But this drug, which has saved a lot of lives, has been okayed by the World Health Organisation (WHO), and the drug's Indian manufacturers are also registered by the WHO."
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
