Development and Cooperation


	Contributions from the Column Facts and trends The FAO adopts guidelines The reality of development aid IMF evaluation of capital market liberalisation Kenya produces generic AIDS drugs UN Report: fewer conflicts in Africa Computers for the poor “In Afghanistan, donors must do more to support the private sector” Debt relief stays on the agenda 11/2004		Kenya produces generic AIDS drugs After South Africa, Kenya will become the second country in Africa to manufacture generic (affordable copies of brand name) drugs to treat AIDS patients. At the end of September, pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline, licensed the Kenyan company, Cosmos Pharmaceuticals, to manufacture medicines containing the active agents zidovudine and lamivudine. A few days later the German pharmaceutical manufacturer, Boehringer Ingelheim, followed suit and awarded Cosmos a licence to manufacture nevirapine. These three preparations combined can extend the life expectancy of AIDS patients. The licences allow Cosmos to sell the medicines in Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda as well as in Kenya. At the end of 2003, following negotiations with the South African anti-AIDS initiative, Treatment Action Campaign, GlaxoSmithKline and Boehringer Ingelheim had awarded generic drug licences to three South African enterprises. Until then the South African company, Aspen Pharmacare, was the only African company authorised to manufacture unexpensive copies of AIDS-medications. (ell)