GABON: New factory produces AIDS and anti-malarial drugs for the region

LIBREVILLE, 15 February 2005 (PlusNews) - The government of Gabon has opened a factory in Libreville that will manufacture drugs to treat HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis (TB) for 30 million people living in six states in Central Africa.

"A battle has been won in the fight against the AIDS pandemic: the reduction of our country's dependence on foreign countries for the supply of drugs," Health Minister Paulette Missambo said at the opening ceremony on Saturday.

The factory will produce six types of generic antiretroviral (ARV) drugs for people living with AIDS using technology provided by Brazil. ARV drugs improve the health of people living with AIDS and extend their life.

The new factory will also manufacture artemesenin-based drugs to treat malaria, medicines for TB and treatments for several other common diseases in Central Africa.

Artemesenin is extracted from the root of a plant grown in China and Vietnam. Anti-malarial treatments which incorporate this relatively new drug are proving more effective than many traditional anti-malarial drugs, to which there is now strong resistance.

The factory was built by the Belgian firm Propharex at a cost of US $654,000. It will be run by Gabon's state-owned pharmaceutical company OGAFRAM and will produce up to four million pills per day.

The plant will distribute medical supplies to all six member states of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC): Gabon, Cameroon, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, the Central African Republic and Chad.