Nairobi — Ugandan ARV manufacturer Quality Chemicals is steadily going international.

A number of foreign health organisations have placed orders with QCIL. And recently, the UK-based TGL Capital purchased equity in the company.

The UK venture capital firm acquired a 2 per cent stake in QCIL, becoming the fourth shareholder after the government of Uganda.

QCIL is a joint venture between India-based Cipla and Quality Chemicals Ltd (QCL).

The UK-based company brings on board international exposure and capital -- to the tune of $32 million. The capital firm targets African companies with investments beyond the $20 million mark.

"QCIL is one of the most promising opportunities in East Africa. The production of key ARV and ACT drugs, combined with good management, has convinced us of the long-term potential of the company," said Zain Latif, principal of TLG Capital.

Frederick Mutebi Kizito, chief financial officer of QCIL, said the investment would help in disease control and price reduction of HIV and malarial medicine in East Africa.

The investment will boost QCIL's finances and hopefully end the delays encountered in drug production.

Earlier in the year, the pharmaceutical firm told Uganda's parliament that it had a shortfall of Ush 28 billion ($14 million) in the 2008/09 financial year.

It convinced the government, which is a shareholder, to appropriate Ush60 billion ($30 million) it had pledged to it.

The government has so far paid Ush 38 billion ($24 million).

QCIL officials also requested that measures be put in place to stop entry of cheap drugs and counterfeits into the market.

The failure by the government to honour its cash contribution and the slow process of getting prequalification from international health organisations, have made QCIL perform below expectations.

Recently, however, it was vetted by the International Committee of the Red Cross and pre-qualified by the Drugs for Neglected Disease Initiative.

The Luzira-based QCIL plant is worth $20 million. It was certified early last year by the National Drug Authority, Uganda's regulatory body.

The company is the first in Uganda that TLG Capital has invested in.

TLG Capital is the largest shareholder of the biggest cancer treatment facility in Ghana, West Africa.

The investment firm was founded last year and is committed to frontier markets, particularly in Africa.

QCIL produces ARV drug Douvir -- a combination of three medicines, Lamivudine, Zidovudine and Nevirapine, which it supplies the Ministry of Health.

It also produces the first-line antimalarial combination Lumartem, which contains artemisinin and lumefantrin.

The World Health Organisation team that was in Kampala recently expressed its readiness to support QCIL, the only factory in Africa to produce triple therapy combination ARV drugs. South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt also have ARV factories but these do not produce triple therapy drugs.

Certification and licensing by WHO will mean that the company will not get business from some governments and international groups like the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the US President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar), which support at least 90 per cent of ARV therapy in sub-Saharan countries.