South Africa Urges BMS to Prevent Aids Drug Shortage

Bristol-Myers Squibb is the only company that has registered the drug Amphotericin B in South Africa to treat the AIDS defining-disease cryptococcal meningitis.

South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign, a HIV activist organisation, has called on Bristol-Myers Squibb to prevent a critical drugs shortage in the country.

Amphotericin B, a life-saving drug used to treat the AIDS defining-disease cryptococcal meningitis, is currently in short supply. Bristol-Myers Squibb is the only company that has registered the drug in South Africa, under the brand name Fungizone.

The Southern African HIV Clinicians Society recommends that every patient diagnosed with cryptococcal meningitis receives two weeks of amphotericin B treatment. Cryptococcal meningitis affects around 7,000 people in the country every year.