The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Pharma firms told not to fix a price on the life of people

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 15, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Pharma firms told not to fix a price on the life of people

Sarah Hiddleston

"Drugs patented and have only had trivial changes should not be given second patent"

PROTEST AGAINST MULTINATIONALS: Patient groups and activists demanding that multinational pharmaceutical company Novartis drop its petition in court against the Cancer Patients Association, the Government of India and four generic pharmaceutical comp anies. Novartis has applied for a patent on its anti-cancer drug Gleevec, but this was rejected in January 2006 by the Chennai patent office. — Photo: Sarah Hiddleston

CHENNAI: Patient groups, including the Indian Network for People Living with HIV/AIDS, Tamil Nadu Network of Positive People, South India Positive Network (SIP+), together with Action Aid International and the Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines, on Wednesday expressed concern at the negative implications of the actions of the multinational pharmaceutical industry on access to medicines in India and other developing countries.

Around 50 activists from these groups marched from the Monroe Statue, near the Island Grounds, to the State Guesthouse demanding that multinationals "should not fix a price on the life of the people." Specifically they demanded that drugs that are already patented and have only had trivial changes made to them are not given a second patent. This, they said, would mean generic companies could not reverse engineer the drug at low cost. Therefore, they argued, many medicines, including those for cancer, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, excess cholesterol and mental illnesses, would be more costly. This would put them out of reach for the poor in this country and many other developing nations who rely on the production and export of medicines from India's vibrant generic industry.

In March 2005, India amended its Patent Act to comply with the 1995 World Trade Organisation Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement, which requires 20 year patent protection for innovative medicines while allowing for public health safeguards. This included Section 3(d), a provision unique to Indian law that states patents would not be given for new forms, uses or minor modifications of the existing drugs unless they differ significantly in efficacy.

Since 2005, 13 patent applications for anti-retroviral drugs for HIV/AIDS have been filed and denied on the basis of Section 3(d).

S. Noori, president of SIP+, said: "We are afraid. If the price of medicines for cancer patients goes from Rs. 8,000 [the cost of the generic version] to over Rs. 80,000, will the same happen for anti-retrovirals? What will the poor people do?"

Kasturi, 30, is HIV positive. Her husband is bedridden by the disease and cannot work, so the couple and their eight-year-old daughter are supported by her mother's family.

Though she is healthy enough not to have to take treatment, her husband is alive because of access to generic anti-retrovirals. For her, the answer is simple: "If we have to pay so much for medicines, we just won't take them."

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