Cape Town — Thembalami Pharmaceuticals, a joint venture between local group Adcock Ingram and Indian pharmaceutical giant Ranbax, has reached agreements with two AIDS-drugs manufacturers to make generic copies of their patented medicines.

GlaxoSmithKline announced yesterday that it had issued a voluntary licence to Thembalami to make generic copies of its patented drugs lamivudine, zidovudine and a combination of the two. In April Boehringer Ingelheim licensed Thembalami to make copies of its drug nevirapine.

The licence agreements follow a Competition Commission settlement reached last year between Glaxo, Boehringer and AIDS activists who had filed a complaint over the drug prices and policies of the companies.

The commission found the companies had charged "excessive prices", and said they had stifled competition in the generics market because they had given only voluntary licenc es to Aspen Pharmacare to make generic AIDS drugs.

A key aspect of the subsequent settlement agreement was that Glaxo and Boehringer were to issue more voluntary licences to generic manufacturers.

They also agreed to restrict their royalty fees to 5% and allow sales to both public and private sector markets in sub-Saharan Africa.

Boehringer and Glaxo said they were in negotiations to issue further voluntary licenc es for their AIDS drugs, but they declined to provide further details.