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news.Bristol-Myers Squibb is to grant licenses to generic drug companies allowing them to manufacture and sell versions of its HIV drug, atazanavir, in Africa and India.
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The company will grant a royalty-free license to Aspen PharmaCare and Emcure Pharmaceuticals to manufacture and sell atazanavir in sub-Saharan Africa. A separate agreement has been concluded with Emcure covering India.
Atazanavir, marketed by Bristol-Myers as Reyataz, is a once-daily protease inhibitor for HIV/AIDS that was initially approved in the US in June 2003 for use in combination therapy with other anti-HIV medicines.
Under the agreement, Bristol-Myers will provide a license to operate under relevant patents and will transfer to Aspen and Emcure its technical know-how related to the manufacturing, testing, packaging, storage and handling of the active pharmaceutical ingredient and the finished dosage form of atazanavir.
“This agreement builds on Bristol-Myers’ long-standing commitment to the global fight against AIDS,” said Peter Dolan, CEO, Bristol-Myers Squibb. “In Sub-Saharan Africa, where the HIV/AIDS pandemic has been especially devastating, we’ve taken a broad-based approach to addressing the AIDS crisis, including providing our AIDS medicines at no profit prices and committing to ensure our patents do not prevent inexpensive treatment in the region,” continued Mr Dolan.