Beximco Pharmaceuticals Ltd will manufacture generic HIV medicine with the technological help of Roche.

Beximco will receive free-of-charge technological expertise from Roche along with three others companies in Zimbabwe, Kenya and Tanzania under their policy of not filing patents on antiretroviral medicines in least developed countries, a Roche press release from London yesterday said.

The press release said Roche's dedicated team from its headquarters in Switzerland will work onsite to build facilities at all four locations for the transfer of technology to take place. The companies will be able to produce Saquinavir, an antiretroviral drug, for supply throughout countries in the sub-Saharan Africa and to those defined as least developed by the United Nations, it said.

Since its launch two years ago, Roche signed technology transfer agreements with nine companies across sub-Saharan Africa and the world's Least Developed Countries (LDCs). It received interest in this regard from 35 manufacturers in 15 eligible countries, including Kenya, Ghana, Zimbabwe and Nigeria. It will continue to work with these individual applicants to assess production capabilities, the press release added.

"These new agreements highlight the ongoing contribution that our Technology Transfer Initiative is making to help strengthen and expand local manufacturing capabilities for HIV medicines in resource-limited countries," said William M Burns, CEO Division Roche Pharma.

Roche said it will not file patents on new antiretroviral medicines in LDCs or sub-Saharan Africa and it will not take action in these countries against the sale or manufacturing of generic versions of antiretroviral medicines. Generic versions of such HIV medicines can therefore be produced in LDCs and sub-Saharan Africa without the need for a voluntary or compulsory licence, it said.