[Ip-health] Financial Times: Indian Aids victims in patents protest

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

Indian Aids victims in patents protest
By Andrew Jack and Jo Johnson in New Delhi
Published: May 11 2006 03:00 | Last updated: May 11 2006 03:00

Hundreds of people affected by HIV/Aids yesterday marched on the Indian
parliament to support a legal challenge to a patentapplication on an
anti-retroviral drug, tenofovir, made by US pharmaceutical group Gilead
Sciences. The challenge will test the Indian patent regime put in place
last year. India's importance goes far beyond drug access for its own
population since it is a high-volume, low-cost centre for the production
and export of drugs for much of the developing world, undercutting
western branded medicinesIndia, dealing with a backlog of 7,000-9,000
applications in the patent "mailbox", faces the prospect of years of
intellectual property litigationpitting multinational drugs groups
against Indian generic manufacturers and NGOs.

Protesters chanted "We want tenofovir" and woreT-shirts blazoned with
the words "HIV positive". NGOs say India is largely in denial about an
epidemic affecting more than 5m people.

Lawyers advising the NGOs say the patent office should reject Gilead's
application on the grounds that the Californian group is trying to
patent a new form of a pre-existing drug without evidence of enhanced
therapeutic efficacy.

Indian drug companies, such as Cipla, have developed a low-cost generic
version of tenofovir, priced in India at a seventh of international
levels and would be likely to have to cease production or pay steep
royalties if a patent was granted.