The Lilly MDR-TB Partnership Provides Unique Model for Fight Against Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis in So...( Technology Transfer Creates Susta...),Health

Technology Transfer Creates Sustainable Solution to Treat One of the

World's Oldest and Deadliest Diseases

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Nov. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- During the annual meeting of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD), The Lilly MDR-TB Partnership brought together experts to highlight the battle against multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in South Africa as a model for the work being done by The Partnership around the world. South Africa is one of the highest-burden MDR-TB countries.

The Lilly MDR-TB Partnership -- a public-private initiative of 14 organizations focused on stopping the spread of MDR-TB and ultimately conquering the disease -- is transferring manufacturing know-how to technology partners around the world. The technology transfer partner in South Africa, Aspen Pharmacare, sold its first batch of cycloserine to Botswana in 2006 and is now producing cycloserine in a brand new facility in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, that has a capacity in excess of 4 billion tablets and capsules per year. Cycloserine is a Lilly antibiotic that is instrumental in the treatment of second-line tuberculosis, or MDR-TB.

Aspen has also now begun construction of a facility at the Port Elizabeth site to produce vials of capreomycin, another critical medicine in the fight against second-line tuberculosis, and is expected to produce this medicine at the facility in early 2009. Capreomycin was developed by Eli Lilly and Company several years ago.

"The ability to manufacture cycloserine locally is essential to treating the plight of multidrug resistance in South Africa," said Mr. Stavros Nicolaou, Executive Director of Aspen Pharmacare. "This initiative allows us to directly address this highly contagious disease, which has a tremendous impact on the health of our country and the entire African continent."

Aspen Pharmacare works closely with the World Health Organization
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