Malawi is considering domestic production of drugs to treat sufferers of HIV/Aids, in response to growing concerns about affordable and sustainable supplies of medicine.

Hetherwick Ntabe, Malawi's health minister, said tightened patent legislation in India threatened supplies of antiretroviral (Arv) therapies for the disease. India is a big supplier of generic drugs to the developing world.

“Let's just encourage local manufacturers to start producing as many drugs as they can,” he said. “Let's develop local capacity for Arvs.”

Malawi produces some basic drugs but no antiretrovirals. Dr Ntabe's ambitions reflect initiatives being considered by African nations to produce their own drugs as they attempt to roll out treatment of HIV/Aids to millions of sufferers.

Some of these initiatives risk provoking tensions with branded drugs companies and raising regulators' concerns over quality. South Africa's Aspen has recently been approved by US regulators to produce antiretrovirals.

But Malawi last year adopted a policy of offering Arvs free to patients, with substantial support from the United Nations Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria, with most sourced from Ranbaxy and Cipla, the Indian companies.

Dr Ntabe said that Malawi had suffered after Cipla last year de-registered its Arv drugs after concerns from the World Health Organisation over the company's procedures. He said Malawi was forced to wait up to three months to order from Ranbaxy, the alternative supplier. “People were dying because of the delays,” he said.