Merck licenses S.African drugmaker for AIDS drug

JOHANNESBURG, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK.N) said on Friday it had granted a licence to South African generic drugmaker Adcock Ingram to manufacture the AIDS drug efavirenz through its local subsidiary MSD Pty Ltd.

Merck said it had previously granted such a licence to South Africa's Aspen Pharmacare (APNJ.J) to produce the life-prolonging anti-retroviral drug, also known under the trade name stocrin.

South Africa earlier this year launched a plan to roll out AIDS medication to up to 1 million people by 2011 to fight one the world's biggest HIV/AIDS epidemics.

About one in nine out of 47 million South Africans is infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

((Reporting by Gershwin Wanneburg, editing by David Holmes; Johannesburg newsroom tel +27 11 775 3159)) Keywords: MERCK DRUGS/LICENCE

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