[Ip-health] EU , US oppose Novartis Glivec Move

[Gopa Kumar]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
  EU, US oppose Novartis' Glivec move  Joe C Mathew / New Delhi February 16,
2007
http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage.php?autono=274856&leftnm=1&subLeft=0&chkFlg
=    International health organisations protesting the Swiss pharmaceutical
major Novartis AG's legal challenge against the provisions of Indian Patent
Act, which supports generic drug production, have found high-profile
supporters from the US and the European Union for their cause.    Henry
Waxman, chairman of the Government Reform Committee of the US Congress, and
five members of the European Parliament have expressed solidarity with the
protestors and raised concern over the public health impact of the Novartis
move.    The Madras High Court will take up the Novartis petition for the
final hearing tomorrow.    The petition challenges the constitutional
validity of the specific provision in the Indian Patent Act, i.e. Section
3(D), which restricts grant of patents to existing drugs with significant
improvements and proven therapeutic advantages.    It is also challenging a
decision of the Indian Patent Office to reject patent to its blockbuster
blood cancer drug called "Glivec (Imatinib Mesylate)".    Waxman, in a
letter to Novartis Chairman Daniel Vasella, said that while he did not
dispute Novartis's right to apply for a patent or appeal against patent
denial, he was concerned about the company's attempt to influence a domestic
Indian law that could have a severe impact on world-wide access to
medicines.    "India's robust generics market supplies affordable, essential
drugs to its citizens as well as to poor nations around the world. Its law
contains safeguards designed to preserve a balance between protecting
innovation and promoting public health.    "If India is pressured to make
its patent laws more stringent than its obligations under the International
Trade Law, this crucial supply of medicines could be threatened," he said.
  Waxman is the co-sponsor of the Drug Price Competition and Patent Term
Restoration Act, (informally known as the Hatch-Waxman Act), a landmark
legislation that allowed more space for generic drug supplies in the US.    The
EU parliamentarians said that "as representatives of European citizens" they
have grave concerns regarding Novartis's action "against a government that
chooses, in compliance with the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health,
to interpret and implement the TRIPS Agreement in a manner supportive of
(its) right to protect public health and, in particular, to promote access
to medicines for all."    Meanwhile, Novartis has reiterated that the
company was denied a patent on its anti-cancer drug Glivec in India because
its laws do not comply with the intellectual property rights standards
drafted by the World Trade Organisation.    In a statement, the company said
the ongoing hearing on the issue at Madras High Court is to 'gain clarity on
the status of the country's laws regarding the protection of intellectual
property and the granting of patents, which are critical to helping patients
by creating incentives for long-term research and development investments
into new and better medicines.'