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Johannesburg - Emerging drug research company iThemba hopes to overcome what it considers an underspend by international pharmaceutical companies on some of the most prevalent diseases in Africa, it said on Sunday.
With R30m in start-up funding from the department of science and technology, the company, which was launched last Thursday, hopes to focus on the "neglected" diseases of HIV/Aids, malaria and Tuberculosis.
"The three critical healthcare issues of sub-Saharan Africa are the treatment and prevention of the killer diseases of HIV/Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Yet, there is little financial incentive for large pharmaceutical companies to tackle the specific health needs of developing countries," a company statement said.
The company's chief scientific officer, Rebanta Bandyopadhyay said that according to estimates for 2002 compiled by the World Health Organisation, approximately 19 percent of all deaths across the world and more than 47 percent of those in Africa were caused by infectious and parasitic diseases.
In a speech prepared for delivery, Science and Technology Minister Mosibudi Mangena said: "These diseases, often working in cahoots with one another, have wreaked havoc across our continent, indiscriminately denying young children a life; cutting down teenagers, heads of households, the rich and the poor, the educated and the illiterate in a random and heartbreaking way, which can be considered as nothing less than genocide by disease.
"If iThemba can find a way of curtailing the progress of any one of these killers, it would have achieved something definitely remarkable."
iThemba's funding is a joint investment between LIFElab and BioPAD, two of the department's Biotechnology Innovation Centres.
Through its ties with Emory University in the US, the UK Medical Research Council and other companies, a number of technologies have been licensed to the company.
One can help cheaper production of the anti-retroviral drug Abacavir and another is related to compounds that have potential as anti-TB drugs.
A library of 20 000 compounds was provided to iThemba by the UK Medical Research Council, and is being screened for potential anti-malaria drugs.
The company is situated in Modderfontein, outside Johannesburg.
- Sapa