Canadian HIV drugs en route to Africa after years of delay

Canada's first emergency shipment of seven million HIV pills left for Rwanda Wednesday, four years after a law was passed to help African countries get cheaper drugs.

The pharmaceutical company Apotex said the pills will help save the lives of 21,000 people.

The drug, Apo-TriAvir, is a triple combination HIV/AIDS drug.

It was approved under Canada's Access to Medicines regime, which allows Canadian generic drug makers to legally produce patented drugs for export to developing countries.

Apotex said no other company has tried to provide the medications because the system is far too time consuming and complex. It urged the federal government to clear red tape.

A second shipment of the same number of doses is scheduled to leave in September 2009.