The Federal Drugs Administration and Control Authority this week announced that Ethiopia and South Africa were selected from African countries to produce Anti-Retroviral (ARV) drugs and, subsequently, the Authority selected two factories in Ethiopia to produce ARV and licensed 2,540 institutions involved in drug retails.

Recent reports indicate that there were few pharmaceutical companies in Ethiopia waiting to be licensed by the government to produce ARV.

The Authority declined to reveal which factories were selected to produce ARV and on what criterion. It only said, "Preparations were well underway to start the production."

A few pharmaceutical factories did not welcome the decision, sources told Addis Tribune. These sources added that the government should have given all pharmaceutical factories a chance to produce ARV based on their capacity, know-how, and the quality of the technical staff as well as factory background.

Dr. Abdul Rahim Hashim, general manager, East African Pharmaceutical (Ethiopia) office, told Addis Tribune that it was not clear under what criterion the Authority had accredited only two factories.

East African Pharmaceuticals applied to the government a year and half ago that it had finalized all the preparations to produce ARV and was waiting for the government to license it. Company officials had also written a letter requesting the government to facilitate ways for the company to produce ARV. "It is unfair," said Dr. Hashim.

He added that his company had also written letters to the Prime Minister Office, the House of People's Representatives and to the HIV/AIDS Secretariat. "We will not give up," he said, adding that the government should have controlled the buyers and the users, not the producers, as far as the latter could fulfil all the necessary requirements - mainly the technology and the quality of the production equipment.