SA to manufacture TB drugs
23 June 2003
A groundbreaking public-private health initiative will see United States pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly hand over its manufacturing technology to a local black empowerment company to make antibiotics to combat a deadly new strain of TB - multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB).
Roughly 1 000 people die every day in South Africa of TB. Although the new strain of the disease, MDR-TB, is not yet a problem here, it may soon become one.
MDR-TB is a virulent, mutated strain of TB now found in many developing countries. Because it is more difficult to treat, it is also more likely to spread rapidly. MDR-TB passes from person to person in much the same way as ordinary TB.
MDR-TB often develops in patients who don’t follow - or whose doctors don’t prescribe - the correct treatment regime for TB. Every year about 400 000 new cases of MDR-TB surface in over 100 countries. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the average MDR-TB patient
infects about 20 more people in his or her lifetime.
Local black empowerment company New Heights will be equipped to produce the drugs – capreomycin and cycloserine – which are used to treat MDR-TB. The drugs are currently manufactured in the US, but Eli Lilly is handing over the skills and manufacturing rights to firms in China, India, SA and possibly Russia to help fight the disease.
The initiative is part of a partnership with the WHO, the US department of health, and Human Services’ Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Brigham and Women’s Hospital (an affiliate of Harvard Medical School) and Purdue University in the US.
Eli Lilly says its contribution to the initiative will amount to $70-million over the next three years. The project will benefit South Africa in terms of job creation, skills transfer, foreign direct investment and export opportunities.
New Heights chairperson Ntuthuko Bhengu said the project would improve treatment for MDR-TB
worldwide. "Tens of thousands more people will be diagnosed with MDR-TB in the coming years, increasing the risk that the disease will mutate to a more difficult-to-treat form.”
The South African operation will also be used as a training facility for personnel in the other participating countries.
SouthAfrica.info reporter
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