MOSCOW, May 4 (RIA Novosti) - Russia could start producing generic versions of patented antiretroviral drugs for treating HIV as early as next year, the country's health watchdog told a government daily Thursday.
"I think we will begin producing the basic range of anti-HIV drugs here, in Russia, as early as 2007," Ramil Khabriyev, head of the Federal Service for the Oversight of Public Health and Social Affairs, was quoted by Rossiiskaya Gazeta as saying.
He said Russia's health authorities were currently negotiating the launch of production with several Western pharmaceutical companies.
"A whole number of [foreign] producers have already begun to inspect our pharmaceutical factories with a view to launching licensed production," Khabriyev said, adding that domestic production would make antiretrovirals more affordable to Russian HIV/AIDS patients.
According to government statistics, some 350,000 people are suffering from HIV/AIDS in Russia, but UN experts have suggested that the real number is 1.4 million, with more than 80% of HIV-positive Russians aged under 30.
