The Hindu Business Line : Indian cos not worried over WHO directive on malaria drug

MAJOR malaria-drug makers from India may not be caught on the back-foot by the treatment guideline on a malaria medicine outlined recently by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

However, some of them do feel that the WHO guideline has not been well thought through.

The WHO had asked pharmaceutical companies to stop the marketing and sale of "single-drug" artemisinin malaria medicines, in order to prevent malaria parasites from developing resistance to this drug, a communiqué issued on Thursday said.

Indian malaria-drug makers Cipla and Ipca were mentioned in the list of manufacturers marketing the mono-therapy, according to an agency report.

Though Cipla makes the medicine in a combination-pack as well, Cipla's Joint Managing Director, Mr Amar Lulla, feels that the WHO guideline is not justified. "We will not discontinue making the single drug," he told Business Line and listed three reasons to support his statement.

Many countries make the other drug in the combination-pack and hence it is useful to make the single-drug, to be used in a kit.

Also, there are different schools of thought on the issue. WHO ought to have worked out the dosages needed to standardise the combination of drugs, he said. And finally, the same could be true of anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs used to treat AIDS patients.

"If there is resistance against Zidovudine or Nevirapine (both ARVs), does that mean wehave to discontinue making them?" he asks.

Ipca supplies malaria drugs to the WHO and Unicef. And Ipca's Executive Director, Mr A.K. Jain, points out that these multilateral agencies procure the malaria drug in a combination pack. Artemisinin is a Chinese plant touted to be among the most effective against malaria. Derivatives from this mother compound are packed in the same strip along with the drug used in the combination therapy, he explains.

Since the regulatory authority disallows combination drugs in India, the Government procures the combination-pack from Ipca for use specifically in States such as Assam and West Bengal that show increased levels of resistance against the single drug, the Ipca official said. Malaria drugs are estimated to be a $100-million market globally.

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