AIDS patients could benefit from a cheaper, Chinese-made version of
the drug zidovudine or AZT as early as next month, said a
pharmaceutical firm's representative.
Gou Xilian, a public-relations officer with the Northeast
Pharmaceutical Group, Thursday said that the firm had already faxed
detailed information about zidovudine to special AIDS hospitals in
the hope that they will buy the product.
Zidovudine should be taken in conjunction with two other medicines
as an anti-AIDS "cocktail".
All AIDS medicines used in China so far have been imported.
The company got the necessary approval from the State Drug
Administration only last week and is now busy marketing the
medicine.
The company started to manufacture zidovudine in early 2000 but all
the products were exported. Therefore, there will be no technical
difficulties for the company, said Gou.
"We are trying our best to get things ready as soon as possible,"
he said. "It will quite possibly be available to patients in
special AIDS hospitals this September."
Zhang Ke, a doctor who specializes in treating AIDS at Beijing's
You'an Hospital, welcomed the introduction of the Chinese-made AIDS
medicine.
Although zidovudine is only a part of the "cocktail," its
localization will effectively lessen the financial burden of
Chinese suffering from AIDS, most of whom are stuck in poverty,
said Zhang.
Zhang and his colleagues treat 100 to 200 AIDS patients every week,
with more than 90 percent of the patients coming from the
countryside and having little or no income.
For these people, monthly treatment using wholly imported medicine
and costing between 2,000 yuan (US$241) and 3,000 yuan (US$362) is
simply out of their reach.
"A
reasonable cost of treatment for most Chinese patients would be
less than 300 yuan (US$36) for a single month," said Zhang.
"Through the localization of the production of these medicines,
this is not an unattainable goal at all."
The cost of the Chinese-made zidovudine will be only about
one-tenth that of the imported version but have the same
effectiveness.
Moreover, said Zhang, many Chinese pharmaceutical producers have
said they are capable of producing internationally recognized AIDS
drugs, though none of them has the capacity to develop their
own.
A
source with the State Drug Administration confirmed that the body
is examining applications from "several" Chinese producers to
manufacture AIDS drugs.
The 56-year-old Northeast Pharmaceutical Group Company is one such
applicant. Gou said the firm expects to produce other AIDS
medicines as well as zidovudine in the near future.
The company hopes to develop China's first research and production
base for AIDS medicines.
"One unfortunate fact is that the demand for such medicine is
expanding in China, and it is important to ensure that patients
have access to affordable and effective medicines," said Gou.
It
is estimated that there were 850,000 registered HIV-positive people
in China at the end of 2001. The number increased to one million in
the first half of this year.
(China
Daily August 16, 2002)