Ugandan Children Are Among the First to Receive Abbott's Lower-Strength Aluvia (lopinavir/ritonav...( More Than 2 Million Children Liv...),Health

More Than 2 Million Children Living with HIV Stand to Benefit from

Scientific Advance

KAMPALA, Uganda, Dec. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Abbott today made its new lower- strength lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/r) tablet, known as Aluvia(R) in developing countries and Kaletra(R) in developed countries, available to children living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda -- a step the company hopes will begin to improve the lives of the 2.3 million children worldwide living with HIV/AIDS. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends LPV/r for the treatment of children who no longer respond to "first line" HIV medicines.

As the first and only co-formulated protease inhibitor tablet that can be used in children, the new lower-strength tablet has the same benefits as the original tablet. The tablet does not require refrigeration and can be taken with or without food -- two important advances in delivering HIV medicine in developing countries.

Abbott shipped the medicine to Uganda under a waiver order approved by the country's government. Waiver orders allow medicines to be shipped, before they are approved in a specific country, provided that the national government gives specific permission. However, Abbott accepts waiver orders only after a medicine has been approved by at least one stringent regulator. The Ugandan Government approved the shipment when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the lower-strength tablet on Nov. 9. The Ugandan Government's early approval of the waiver order allowed Dr. Victor Musiime of the Joint Clinical Research Centre in Kampala to write the first prescription for the lower-strength tablet just days after it had received marketing authorization in the United States. Other African governments are now also talking to Abbott about the possibility of waiver shipments.

Abbott is also working with African governments to try to expedite registration of this medicine across the continent. Registr
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