New low cost HIV drug to be made by Ugandan company

Starting as early as next month, Uganda will produce a new low cost and more effective life saving HIV/AIDS drug, according to the state-owned New Vision newspaper, which said that the anti- retroviral (ARV) drug, tenofovir, the active ingredient of US biotech firm Gilead Sciences (Nasdaq: GILD) Viread (tenofovir disoproxil fumarate), will be manufactured by local company Quality Chemicals Pharmaceutical Company.

A monthly dose of the drug will cost $20 compared to $600 dollars for the same drug in Europe, the newspaper reported, noting that patients need only to take one pill once a day, as opposed to several drugs at time. Government health centers are expected to start receiving the new drug next year, in a move that will partly improve compliance to ARVs.

Many more Ugandans have started ARV therapy