•  nairobi
• Wednesday, March 02, 2011
• Inter Press Service

Access to affordable medicine for millions of people in the South could be at risk if the production and distribution of generic medicine from India is restricted. Campaigners say both Kenyan legislation and a European Union-India trade agreement to be concluded this year will block access to affordable drugs.

Counterfeit goods are seen as a threat by government and industry alike. As in many other developing countries, a heavy reliance on generic medicine in Kenya is held responsible for the permeation of counterfeit drugs. Unscrupulous traders are believed to fraudulently mislabel various products as legal generic drugs which are sold to unsuspecting consumers.

In addition to the health risks posed by fake drugs, the trade in counterfeit medicines costs the Kenyan government 75 million dollars in lost tax revenues every year; manufacturers incur a net loss to their profits of over 375 million dollars.

To curb this, and similar losses to manufacturers of other goods, Kenya passed the Anti-Counterfeit Act in 2008. The Act defines counterfeiting as 'the manufacture, production, packaging, re-packing, labeling or making, whether in Kenya or elsewhere, of any goods whereby those protected goods are imitated in such manner and to such degree that the counterfeit goods are identical or substantially similar copies of the protected goods.'

The problem, according to Dr Onyango Opiyo, the Executive Director of the Nairobi Network of Post-Test Clubs (a community-based organisation that supports people living with HIV/AIDS), is that legitimate generic medicines are being caught up in the net. 'The concern is over the EU-India Free Trade Agreement and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement which have provisions whose impact will be to delay production of affordable, quality generic versions for up to 10 years. This would inevitably drastically reduce access to life-saving generic drugs.'

The European Union is expected to sign a trade agreement with India this year; campaigners in Kenya, India and in Europe are concerned that the new agreement will hamper the manufacturing of generic anti-malaria and anti-retroviral drugs that are widely used in Africa.

It is estimated that 1.4 million Kenyans are living with HIV/AIDS - according to the Kenya AIDS Indicator Survey - 400,000 patients are already receiving free anti-retroviral treatment. The number will rise by an additional 70,000 in the next two months in a government bid to increase access to the life sustaining drugs, in accordance with the Millennium Development Goal of curbing HIV, TB and malaria.

In recent years, cancer has also placed an increased burden on the health sector. Dr Opiyo, who is also Head of the Cancer Treatment Centre at Kenyatta Hospital in Nairobi, says his centre receives 4,000 cancer patients per year.

Besides cancer and HIV/AIDS, the country is battling with many other illnesses like TB and malaria; treatment with branded drugs is prohibitively expensive, and health professionals must rely on generic drugs to cover more people who need care. Expanded treatment has only been made possible through access to generic medicines, which are available at a fraction of the cost of branded product, but without compromising quality.

Jack Kamonya, an anti-HIV activist and primary school teacher says that in the 1990s, the cost of patented antiretrovirals ranged between 10 and 15 thousand dollars a year - well out of reach of the majority of Kenyans and far too costly for the government to consider supplying through the public health system.

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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