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The new company is dedicated solely to the supply and distribution of TB medicines to the Public sector, it said in a statement.
"The company is unique as it not only engages in sales and marketing, but also has a robust support operation in place to assist the Department of Health's TB Control and Management programmes in all of the provinces.
"This takes the form of TB case-finding campaigns, training of health professionals on tuberculosis and stock management issues, education of the public and advocacy and community awareness programmes," the company added.
"Sisonke is a unique model in the pharmaceutical industry in that it is South African in every respect. The medicines promoted are used in the fight against tuberculosis, a major killer in South Africa, and were largely researched and developed in South Africa," the company noted.
The products are manufactured at the sanofi-aventis production facility in Waltloo, Pretoria, and nearly all of the directors and staff - including production staff - are South African.
Supporting transformation objectives
Speaking at a function at Waltloo on Wednesday, John Fagan, General Manager of sanofi-aventis and a Director of Sisonke Pharmaceuticals, said: "As a corporate citizen operating in the new, democratic South Africa, sanofi-aventis is committed to playing a major role in supporting the transformation objectives of the Government, in particular the newly formed Health Charter.
"The formation of Sisonke is a response to the call for increased Black Economic Empowerment - or BEE as we all know it - in our industry. Sanofi-aventis is among the first pharmaceutical companies to answer the government's call for greater empowerment.
"We are very proud of this partnership as it not only embraces the BBBEE (broad-based BEE) principles, but it has also enabled us to provide part ownership of the business to employees.
"The formation of Sisonke is also in synergy with the strategic objectives of sanofi-aventis. Our company has long been involved in the fight against TB. We have been the major producer of TB medicines for many years and these are now promoted and distributed by Sisonke.
"Furthermore, with our primary CSI initiative - namely the non-profit Section 21 company TBFREE - we support the Government's TB Control and Management Strategy in two important ways. We train DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment Short-Term) supporters who ensure patients' compliance with their TB treatment, and secondly we mobilise communities and raise awareness of TB. This is implemented via a R120m donation by sanofi-aventis to implement TBFREE (whose official name is the Nelson Mandela Aventis Project for Combating TB)."
User-friendly products
Fagan added that Sisonke and sanofi-aventis were also listening to the patients and care givers by developing new packs that were "user-friendly."
"We recently introduced a blister pack containing a week's supply of TB medication. All the tablets needed for each day are packed in a row labelled with the name of the day - eg, 'Monday', 'Tuesday' and so forth. This is expected to reduce confusion and to encourage compliance. We have also combined several of our medicines into one tablet, eliminating the need to take handfuls of tablets and capsules at a time. This is being well received by patients."
Also speaking at the event was Reuben Mawela, District Sales Manager and a Director of Sisonke Pharmaceuticals. "The creation of Sisonke through the joining of hands of sanofi-aventis and Litha has added a whole new dimension to the work we are able to do in providing much needed medicines to the public sector. In the short life of our joint venture, great strides have been made, especially in our interfaces with the Department of Health. This has been indeed a fortuitous and synergistic partnership."
