Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bangkok Post - Friday 22 March 2002
Anjira Assavanonda
Made by the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation (GPO), the drug, GPO-VIR, is a triple combination of anti-viral drugs Stavudine 30-40 mg, Lamivudine 150 mg and Nevirapine 200 mg.
Initially, 120,000 tablets will go on sale.
The three substances have already been prescribed separately to patients and proven effective in cutting virus loads, with few side-effects.
The cocktail drug will cost only 1,200 baht a month, making it the cheapest anti-retroviral medicine in the world.
Thongchai Tavichachart, GPO director, said his agency registered a patent effective for 10 years in May last year.
Any firm which wants to produce GPO-VIR must now seek permission. From next month, GPO-VIR would be available on prescription in state hospitals nationwide as well as GPO drugstores for 20 baht a tablet.
Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan said 695,000 people in Thailand had HIV/Aids, with 29,000 new cases each year.
"This triple combination will help ease the burden of Aids sufferers as they will be able to buy anti-retroviral drugs at much cheaper price, compared to the more than 10,000 baht a month they paid in the past," said Ms Sudarat.
Dr Thongchai said foreign countries had shown an interest in GPO-VIR, including Cambodia, Burma, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia.
Medicine Sans Frontier (MSF), an international medical organisation, had sent staff to look at the manufacturing process.
"They urged GPO to improve procedures involving the collection of raw materials.
"If we can meet their requirements, MSF will sign an agreement with GPO to buy GPO-VIR for distribution in developing countries," he said.
Within six months GPO would be making three million of the tablets a month, and within a year six million tablets a month.
Making the drug would give 20,000 HIV-infected people access to anti-viral drugs under the government's 30-baht scheme.
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BP020306
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