Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Reuters NewMedia - Friday March 28, 2003
Shapi Shacinda

Amara Essy, interim chairman of the commission of the African Union (AU), said the 53-member organization had reached an agreement with Brazil. Essy added that only technical details remained to be worked out.

Brazil has been heralded as a pioneer in making copycat anti-AIDS drugs, to the ire of the pharmaceutical industry, and is now held as a model in the fight against AIDS, having kept HIV infections to less than one percent of its population.

"We would like them (Brazil) to build three companies to manufacture, one in North Africa, another in the center of the continent and one in southern Africa," Essy told a news conference in Lusaka.

Africa is home to more than 70 percent of the estimated 42 million people worldwide infected with HIV, the virus that causes the deadly disease.

In the southern tip of the continent, infection rates in some countries are in excess of 30 percent and experts say average life expectancy of people in some countries will drop below 40 by 2010 as the disease shortens the lives of millions.

The pandemic has been exacerbated by civil wars, hunger and poverty, and many of its citizens -- who live on less than a dollar a day -- cannot afford life-prolonging anti-retroviral drug cocktails.

"Millions of people are dying and unless we tackle this problem, development will be hindered. We need billions of dollars at the moment for AIDS drugs and many countries cannot afford the kind of money needed for the drugs," Essy said.

In Brazil, an aggressive prevention campaign combined with a successful strategy of negotiating better prices on AIDS drugs by threatening to issue compulsory licenses has slashed AIDS-related deaths. Africa hopes to draw from Brazil's experience.

Last year, Brazil said it wanted to share its generic anti-retroviral drugs and manufacturing technology with some of the world's poorest nations, including African countries.

Essy did not say when the projects would get under way, but said AU officials would be meeting Brazilian officials in April to discuss the plans.

Essy said the AU would work out a mechanism within its six regional trade blocs to pool resources and sources for cheaper AIDS drugs.

"The answer to our current (AIDS) problem is to work together as Africans find a lasting solution on how to tackle this pandemic," Essy said. "We are encouraging individual countries to work together in fighting AIDS."

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