Pharmaceutical company Gilead on Friday announced it has signed nonexclusive license agreements with five additional generic drug makers in India to produce generic versions of its antiretroviral drug Viread, the San Jose Mercury News reports (Johnson, San Jose Mercury News, 9/23). Gilead in August was in negotiations with 10 Indian generic drug companies to assist them in producing generic versions of its patented antiretroviral drugs. Under Gilead's proposals, generic drug companies would be allowed to sell generic versions of the antiretrovirals -- including Truvada and Viread -- only in developing countries, and the drugs would look different from the patented versions. The company in August granted Emcure Pharmaceuticals, Hetero Drugs and Strides Arcolab the rights to manufacture and distribute tenofovir, the generic version of Viread, to 95 low-income countries, including India. The financial terms of the agreements were not made public (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 8/15). Alkem, Aurobindo Pharma, JB Chemicals, Matrix Laboratories and Shasun also reached agreements with Gilead, India's Daily News & Analysis reports. Gilead is said to be negotiating with two additional pharmaceutical companies to manufacture and distribute Viread (Balakrishnan, Daily News & Analysis, 9/22).

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