Swiss boost for vital SA drugs (23 June 2011)

Pharmaceutical trade deficit of R14,1bn may be reduced if Swiss pharmaceutical giant establishes manufacturing at former nuclear facility Pelindaba
SARAH WILD
Published: 2011/06/23 06:37:02 AM

SA IS poised to take a giant leap towards reducing its dependence on the patented pharmaceutical imports it requires to fight its three most devastating diseases — AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.
One of the world’s leading producers of pharmaceutical ingredients, Lonza, is negotiating an agreement to establish a manufacturing plant at SA’s now largely disused Pelindaba nuclear facility, outside Pretoria.
Swiss-based Lonza had sales of R16bn last year. It plans to establish a large manufacturing and research and development facility at Pelindaba.
Pharmaceutical imports are the fifth-largest contributor to SA’s trade deficit — at R14,1bn last year — and the country is the world’s largest market for antiretroviral drugs. Local manufacturing capacity will improve security of supply and retain skilled professionals.
The state’s tender for antiretrovirals last year was worth R4,3bn. Pelchem, a subsidiary of the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa), and Lonza are entering a partnership to produce the active pharmaceutical ingredient in antiretrovirals at Pelindaba. Pelchem has fluorine production facilities, and antiretrovirals are fluorinated to allow for longer times between dosing and application.
"The partnership involves establishing a local pharmaceutical manufacturing complex in SA, focusing on the country’s burden of diseases, such as AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis," Chantal Janneker, manager of marketing and communications at Necsa, said yesterday. "The value of the partnership will be worth billions of rand given the country’s high demand for these drugs."
Stavros Nicolaou, spokesman for Pharmaceuticals Made in SA , yesterday welcomed the move. "We support any initiative that would promote local production of active pharmaceutical ingredient," he said.
However , he questioned whether the Pelindaba products would be sold at a premium or whether they would be included in the Department of Health’s preferential procurement policy.
But, as head of strategic trade at Aspen Pharmacare, the company which accounted for 40% of the government’s antiretroviral tender last year, Mr Nicolaou said the pharmaceutical producer was not threatened by the partnership. "Lonza wants to do active pharmaceutical ingredient antiretrovirals, not the finished product, called the formulation. We’re the formulators (putting the drugs together), so this opens up another channel of procurement for us. If it’s a good channel, we’ll support them," he said.
Of drugs that were commercialised in the past 50 years, up to 15% contain fluorine, and this percentage is increasing .
Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor said last month that fluorine development came under the mandate of the Department of Health as well as the Department of Science and Technology because it was part of technology and innovation. "A facility in SA would enable us to work towards more pharmaceuticals based in SA," she said.
Ms Pandor was in Switzerland yesterday visiting Lonza’s plants.
Pelchem supplies local and global industries with fluorochemicals. Fluorine is also used to process uranium but Pelchem discontinued its uranium production in 1998. "The main industries it serves are the petroleum, steel manufacturing, mining, agriculture, packing, semiconductor and microelectromechanical systems," Ms Janneker said.
Lonza did not respond to questions yesterday.

Business day
23 June 2011