Nairobi — Giant Indian drugs maker, Ranbaxy, is making a determined push into the East African market in what appears to be part of a global effort to become the pre-eminent generic maker in the world.

In the past three months alone, Ranbaxy has registered nearly 10 different drugs with regulatory authorities across the region. More than half of the medicines are meant for the Kenyan market, the region's most lucrative, valued at more than $200 million annually.

Among the drugs registered with Kenya's Pharmacy and Poisons Board by the company are antibiotics and antifungals. In Tanzania and Uganda, the company recently registered its brand of the antibiotic oflaxacin, while in Ethiopia and Burundi, Ranbaxy has registered a raft of generic Aids medicines.

Ranbaxy is India's largest pharmaceutical company by sales. Analysts attribute the push by the firm and other Indian generic drug makers to establish a bigger presence in East Africa and the continent to the emergence of a lucrative market in medicines for Aids and opportunistic infections as well as those for malaria and tuberculosis: This follows greater global commitment to funding the treatment of these diseases.

"The trend towards greater funding by both governments and international donors to commit more resources to the treatment of Aids, malaria and tuberculosis means that the market for medicines for these diseases is getting bigger by the day," Dr Ephantus Njagi, an HIV specialist and director of the Nairobi-based consultancy Health Development Associates told The EastAfrican. "Branded drugs are perceived to be expensive, and generics are making major inroads."

Nearly 200,000 East Africans are already on ARVs, but Aids experts say a similar number remains untreated. In Kenya, for example, where the Ministry of Health says that it intends to put 140,000 HIV-positive people on the life-saving drugs by the end of the year, only an estimated 70,000 currently have access to the drugs.