Indian doctors to be trained to administer ARVs

The Clinton Foundation established by former US president Bill Clinton and the UK's Department for International Development will help the National AIDS Control Organization in India train 150,000 of the country's doctors to administer antiretroviral (ARV) drugs. Training physicians is a necessary component of the roll out of life-saving ARVs.

The Indian government has been the subject of criticism by Richard Feachem, executive director of the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, for failing to supply their own citizens with drugs that are manufactured in India. The Clinton Foundation views the training of doctors as the first step in assuring that India's estimated 5.1 million HIV-infected citizens will have access to affordable treatments.

Soon after this announcement the Indian pharmaceutical company Ranbaxy received tentative approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for one of its generic ARVs. The FDA also granted tentative approval to Ranbaxy and another Indian company, Aurobindo Pharma, to produce copies of the ARV nevirapine.

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All articles written by Kristen Jill Kresge