An innovation award was recently granted, in South Africa, to the developer of an HIV medication suitable for infants and children. The formulation has been developed through a collaboration between the University of Eastern Finland’s School of Pharmacy and Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) in South Africa.
TUT Doctoral Researcher Mpho Kotlolo received the EDHE ABSA Challenge Award aimed at promoting academic entrepreneurship, for a project addressing a major health challenge in the region. 86% of the world’s HIV-positive children live in sub-Saharan Africa and many are born with HIV. In South Africa alone, there are 270,000 HIV-positive children. Kotlolo has worked with researchers at the University of Eastern Finland, during several research visits in Kuopio, to develop a paediatric HIV drug formulation adapted for the southern African region.
The primary form of HIV medication for infants is liquid, but these suffer poor shelf-life in warm climates. Refrigerated storage is often impossible for many families due to lack of refrigerators or frequent power outages. Also, liquid medication is dosed in millilitres per kilogramme of body weight, but measuring doses and weighing children can be challenging in resource-poor settings.
Professor Ossi Korhonen explains that the goal was to develop a rapidly dissolving tablet formulation containing three antiretroviral drugs: abacavir, tenofovir and zidovudine.
“The rapidly dissolving tablet can be mixed with water or baby food. By splitting or combining tablets, the dose can be adjusted to suit the child’s weight and age.”
According to Kotlolo, the small, palatable and easy-to-swallow tablet also makes treatment easier for older children.
In Kuopio, Kotlolo worked with pharmacy researchers to develop the composition and processes for manufacturing the tablets. The quality of the tablets was tested according to European standards, and the results were published in a peer-reviewed journal, the European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
“The results were promising, but the formulation and manufacturing process still need further development and optimisation,” Korhonen says.
The research was implemented at laboratory scale. The next goal is to identify a local pharmaceutical company in South Africa to continue product development, scale up industrial production and apply for sales authorisation. During the project, collaboration has taken place with the South African pharmaceutical company, Kiara Health.
In addition to Korhonen, Kotlolo’s supervisors included Professor Jarkko Ketolainen in Kuopio and Professor David Katerere in Pretoria.
Kotlolo spent a total of nine months at the University of Eastern Finland. Two research visits were organised as a part of a global network, the Southern African Finnish Higher Education Network for Health and Wellbeing (SAFINET), funded by the Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland. The third visit was funded through the Erasmus + Global Mobility programme.
The School of Pharmacy and TUT are currently also collaborating on toxicology education through the “From Toxicity to Safety” (ToxiSA) project, funded by the Team Finland Knowledge programme administered by the Finnish National Agency for Education. Cooperation between UEF and TUT began in 2016 with a food innovation and development project, and the cooperation has since expanded to all four UEF faculties.
News of the award on the EDHE website
Kotlolo’s blog post about her exchange in Kuopio
Research article:
Eelis Komulainen, Mpho Kotlolo, Tuomas Kilpeläinen, Baatile Komane, Jarkko Ketolainen, David R Katerere, Marko Lehtonen, Katja Pajula, Ossi Korhonen. Evaluation of the quality of the fixed-dose triple combination dispersible tablet for HIV-positive paediatric population after the continuous direct compression and batch manufacturing techniques, European Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Vol 214, 2025, 107299, ISSN 0928-0987, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejps.2025.107299
