ABUJA, Dec 10 (AFP) - Nigeria on Monday launched Africa's first trial of cheap, imported, generic AIDS drugs, in a bold iniative aimed at tackling an epidemic that has killed millions across the continent.
As a major AIDS summit got under way nearby in Burkina Faso, the first trial in Africa of cheap generic drugs imported from India got off to a somewhat chaotic start in Nigeria.
"We have been told we are one of the centres that will be administering this trial. We have received the paperwork, but we are still waiting for the drugs," said Dr Remi Kalejaiye, the senior AIDS doctor at the main federal military hospital in Lagos.
But he said the drugs for his clinic have arrived at a federal medical warehouse in Lagos and would likely be distributed in a few days.
In the capital, Abuja, and in the largest northern city, Kano, it was the same story.
The drugs, imported from India where they are made by drugs manufacturers Cipla and Rambazy, have arrived in the country and have been distributed to federal medical centres, health officials said.
In coming days, they will be dispatched on to the 18 hospitals chosen to launch the trial. That process has already started, a ministry official said.
The paperwork for the other hospitals "is being done" and the patients will start receiving treatment "within days", the official said. The minister and other senior officials were in Burkina Faso attending the AIDS conference and unavailable for comment.
The scheme, once fully under way, will then be scaled up, gradually, to 100 centres and cover 10,000 patients in the first year.
However slowly it is starting the trial itself offers a first ray of hope to a first handful of the estimated 3.5 million Nigerians with HIV and AIDS, and, if successful and copied elsewhere, to millions more around Africa.
Across the continent, more than 28.1 million have HIV/AIDS and only a tiny minority can afford to pay the 6,000 or more dollars it costs per year to purchase brand name drugs used in the West.
Having almost the same medical effect as the branded drugs, the generic drugs are produced at a fraction of the cost by lesser known drugs companies in India and others in Brazil, overriding the western companies' patents.
In April this year, the South African government won the right to import generic drugs but, despite growing pressure from AIDS activists, has so far failed to implement a programme such as that starting in Nigeria.
The programme was born of a deal negotiated in April under which the Nigerian government agreed to buy the generic drugs from the two Indian companies at a cost of 350 dollars per patient per year.
The health ministry said in September the drugs will be provided to the patients at a state-subsidised price of 1,000 naira (nine dollars) per month.
Those who take part in the trial must first pass certain medical tests - checking their blood count and liver functions - and will then be treated on a first come, first served basis, Kalejaiye said.
The doctor expressed confidence that the health system in Nigeria would be able to administer the drugs efficiently once the trial was fully under way.
"This hospital has itself been administering branded drugs for years to a minority who can afford them. We are very excited about this trial making the generic drugs available to more people," he said.
Deputy Health Minister Amina Ndalolo last month said that in January the country will also launch a special programme aimed at preventing transmission of HIV/AIDS from mother to child, another initiative likely to be watched in South Africa and across the continent.
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