Kenyan pharmaceutical manufacturer Universal Corporation Limited has been granted a royalty-free voluntary license by global drugmaker Merck to produce a generic version of an investigational once-monthly oral HIV prevention pill.
Speaking on the breakthrough, Grassroots Journalism Kenya Team Leader Dennis Beru highlighted that local clinical trials are directly shaping the medicine’s development. “The Kenya-based research is therefore part of the clinical evidence being generated in the same region where the medicine could eventually be manufactured and used,” Beru noted.
The drug, known as alimatravir or MK-8527, is undergoing Phase 3 trials in Kenya, Uganda, and South Africa (SA) to establish local efficacy. The agreement covers distribution across 129 low- and middle-income nations, with Ugandan and SA manufacturers also joining the regional effort.
–ChannelAfrica–
