¡@ JOHANNESBURG, Jan. 25(Xinhuanet)-- South African pharmaceutical company Aspen has obtained permit from US drug authorities to locally manufacture generic AIDS drugs, a move to lower the cost of antiretroviral treatment, the company announced on Tuesday.

Antiretrovirals(ARVs) could cost South Africans as little as about 100 rand(16. 7 US dollars) a month after local manufacturingof generic drugs start next month, Stephen Saad, Aspen's chief executive, said in a press conference in Johannesburg.

Aspen Pharmacare group became the world's first drug manufacturer to receive approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration(FDA) to produce generic ARVs, after it received the FDA's go-ahead notice on Tuesday morning, Saad said.

"Aspen is well positioned to be a major player in the supply ofcost-effective generic ARVs, both in South Africa and in export markets," Saad said.

The company, Africa's largest pharmaceutical manufacturer, willbe allowed to make the most widely used triple cocktail generic ARVs. This is a combination of Lamivudine, Zidovudine and Nevirapine tablets in conventional adult dosages.

Saad said that depending on which cocktail combination was required, treatment could cost South Africans as little as 100 rand a month.

The company, together with several other companies including some global big names, is now waiting for the South African government to announce the result of its first ARV tender.

The tenders were an integral part of Pretoria's plan to providefree AIDS drugs at public hospitals and clinics, announced in November 2003.

However, the South African government has been blamed by pharmaceutical industry, AIDS activists and international organizations for delaying the tendering process, which left HIV positive people and AIDS patients untreated. More than five million people out of 45 million South Africans have been infectedwith HIV, the virus causing AIDS, the highest number in the world.

It is estimated that at least 1.7 million AIDS patients now urgently need ARV drugs for triple"cocktail" treatment, though the rest 3.3 million people living with HIV/AIDS will eventually demand the drugs.

Only about 20,000 patients are receiving the life-saving antiretroviral medicines in state hospitals, according to the Treatment Action Campaign, an HIV/AIDS pressure organization in South Africa.