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4 Ranbaxy anti-AIDS drugs in WHO list

BS Corporate Bureau in New Delhi

Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd has announced that four of its drugs have been included in the World Health Organisation's list of preferred anti-AIDS drugs.

The four drugs are zidovudine 300 mg tablets, nevirapine 200 mg tablets, lamivudine 150 mg tablets and lamivudine 150 + zidovudine 300 mg tablets.

Ranbaxy will now become a pre-qualified supplier of these products to the UN agency.

The drugs will be manufactured at the company's plant at Dewas in Madhya Pradesh which have been approved by WHO, US-FDA, UK-MCA, S Africa-MCC, and Australian-TGA.

The company has developed a range of generic anti-retrovirals. Ranbaxy markets its anti-AIDS range of drugs in several countries. The company's strength in the anti-HIV segment is established internationally as its pipeline includes all major molecules within the category.

Many African governments and several NGOs have shown an interest in sourcing ARVs from Ranbaxy. The first major contract for $1.8 million was won from MoH-Nigeria.

Registrations have also been received in several countries with high prevalence of HIV including Brazil, Cambodia, Peru and Vietnam.

Some products have been launched in these countries. In India, at present there are 10 products available, but there are many more in the pipeline. With this, Ranbaxy can offer sufficient drugs to construct several first line highly active anti-retroviral therapy regimens.

The company has one of the largest range of bio-equivalent generic ARVs viz didanosine, lamivudine, lamivudine + stavudine, lamivudine + zidovudine, stavudine and zidovudine.

Treatment of HIV entails not only ARVs but also drugs for opportunistic infections and continuous monitoring of the infection to alter therapy as and when required. Ranbaxy's initiatives in this area will help address HIV infections that are severely affecting the economies of several developing countries.

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