Kenya: HIV Patients Suffer As Drug is Recalled

source: http://allafrica.com/

The Nation (Nairobi)
9 August 2007Posted to the web 9 August 2007

Caroline WafulaNairobi

Several Aids patients have had to switch to alternative medicine following the recall of a key anti-retroviral drug from the market.

Viracept, an ARV agent for use in HIV therapy, was withdrawn from the European Union market in June by Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche after it was found to be contaminated with cancer-causing by-products.

Patients taking the drug started complaining in May that it was emitting a strange smell and a subsequent analysis revealed impurities with higher-than-normal levels of methane sulfonic acid ethyl, a substance that can damage DNA and may generate cancer.
Mr William Burns, the chief executive officer of Roche's pharmaceutical division, said the contamination had been caused by the interaction of two chemicals in a vessel where the drug is produced.

Generic name
In Kenya, a total of 7,152 packs of the drug have been collected from various batches, including those already collected by patients. They are to be destroyed.
Viracept, a second-line HIV and Aids drug, is authorised for the treatment of infected adults and children.

The drug, whose generic name is Nelfinavir, is considered to be an important defence against HIV and is used by patients who don't respond to first-line drugs or suffer side effects and also in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission.
The recall has left patients with the painful choice of discontinuing the life-saving medicine or switching to expensive options, which many cannot afford.

Free of charge
In Kenya, most patients get the drug free of charge under President Bush's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief.

Dr Antony Wanyoike, Roche's regional manager, said the affected packs were worth Sh44 million and that between 800 and 900 patients were using the drug.

He told the Nation that the company had managed to recall 99 per cent of the affected batches. "We have all the 7,152 packs in quarantine in our warehouse and we are waiting to have them destroyed," he said.

No complaint
The official added that no complaints had been reported from Kenyan patients.

In the courts, a man was yesterday charged with unlawfully importing drugs and Part 1 poisons.
Mr Anthony Kibe Gitau denied that last July 31, at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, he was found to have unlawfully imported 45,000 tablets of Metakelfin. He was released on a cash bail of Sh300,000.

Additional reporting: Jonathan Konuche