A pharmaceutical company producing Aids drugs in Zambia is ready to start clinical trials on 28 HIV-positive volunteers, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Pharco, which is 28% government-owned, said it will start full production of the anti-retroviral drugs after the three-month trials, the Zambia Daily Mail reported.
A company official cited by the paper did not say when the trials would start.
”The plant will be able to produce a quantity of at least 150 000 treatments per year,” Pharco general manager Johan Richter was quoted as saying. ”Production capacity will be increased when and if required.”
Zambia is the first country in the Southern African region to produce anti-retroviral drugs outside South Africa.
Minister of Health Brian Chituwo has repeatedly promised to change regulations allowing his country to share the drugs with regional neighbours.
Last month, the United States Agency for International Development pledged to give Zambia $24-million to combat malaria and Aids, and treat drinking water.
In October, Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa promised to scale up the numbers of people receiving Aids drugs from the current 10 000 to about 100 000 by the end of 2005.
However, Rosemary Musonda, acting director of the National Aids Council, said unless health institutions in rural areas are upgraded, it will be difficult for the drugs to be administered properly.
Current distribution is confined to big government and church hospitals in urban centres where doctors, laboratory technicians, pharmacists, clinical officers and nurses have been adequately trained. — Sapa-AP