UNITAID to meet Indian drug manufacturers

World Health Organisation (WHO) partner UNITAID today said it has organised a two-day meeting with Indian drug manufacturers to brief the companies about the programmes and initiatives undertaken by the mission.

The meeting is jointly organised with the WHO's regional office for South-East Asia, UNITAID said in a statement.

"The aim of the meeting is to brief the Indian companies about new breakthrough initiative 'UNITAID patent pool', currently in development, which aims to enlarge access to new and better treatment," it added.

The UNITAID patent pool initiative seeks to ensure that patents do not prevent the production of generic ARVs (Aids Medicines) particularly the development and production of fixed-dose combinations and AIDS medicines for children.

According to WHO data, around 90 per cent population in low- and middle-income is dependent on the generic ARVs, which are mostly produced by Indian companies.

However, due to recent changes brought in patent regime in these countries, new medicines have become patentable and this would affect the generic industry's ability to provide new medicines to millions of patients in developing countries.

UNITAID is one of the largest suppliers of generic medicines for HIV and AIDS patients in the world along with its partners such as Unicef and other bodies.