SOUTH AFRICA: Aspen cashing in on ARV market
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
JOHANNESBURG, 5 September (PLUSNEWS) - Africa's largest drug manufacturer, Aspen Pharmacare, says five times more South Africans are using its antiretrovirals (ARVs) than just over a year ago.
Aspen director Stephen Saad confirmed that the number of local patients using ARVs grew from 20,000 a year ago to 100,000 at present, with an additional 200,000 patients in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa accessing its life-prolonging anti-AIDS drugs.
Sixteen months ago the firm won 58 percent of the South African government's ARV tender, worth almost US$1.7 billion in turnover over three years.
Although strides had been made in South Africa's ARV rollout, HIV/AIDS activists have charged that the treatment figures quoted by the government - 134,000 by May this year - were inflated.
Fatima Hassan, an attorney with the Johannesburg-based AIDS Law Project, told the Mail and Guardian newspaper that the number was more likely between 90,000 and 100,000.
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