[Ip-health] AP: Hundreds protest Swiss pharmaceutical giant's challenge to Indian patent law

[Sheila.SHETTLE@geneva.msf.org]

Hundreds protest Swiss pharmaceutical giant's challenge to Indian patent
law

Published: Monday, January 29, 2007 | 5:38 AM ET


Canadian Press: GAVIN RABINOWITZ

NEW DELHI (AP) - Hundreds of Indian activists protested in New Delhi on
Monday against a challenge to the country's patent law by Swiss
pharmaceutical giant Novartis, saying the move could leave millions without
access to affordable medicine.
Novartis, which makes the popular leukemia drug Gleevec - known in Europe
and India as Glivec - is fighting the Indian government's rejection of its
attempt to patent a new version of the medicine.
If Novartis wins the civil suit, Indian firms would be banned from making
generic versions of the drug. Activists fear this could set a precedent for
other pharmaceutical companies seeking patent protection for essential
medicines - including antiretroviral AIDS drugs - currently made cheaply in
places like India.
"We will all lose if this case is accepted," said Loon Gangte, 40, an
HIV-positive activist who was among the few hundred people protesting in
downtown New Delhi on Monday.
A court was hearing the case the same day in the southern Indian city of
Chennai.
India's patent law, which came into effect Jan. 1, 2005, allows patents for
products that represent new inventions after 1995 - the year India joined
the World Trade Organization - or for an updated drug that shows greater
efficacy.

Novartis insists that its improved drug is more easily absorbed by the
body.
But Indian drug companies and aid groups say Gleevec is a new form of an
old drug invented before 1995.
Several Indian pharmaceutical companies already make generic copies of
Gleevec, but sell it at a 10th of the US$2,600 price for a monthly dose
charged by the Swiss company.
Indian companies also make a host of other generic drugs, available at a
fraction of the price of branded medicine - and used throughout the
developing world, where the need for affordable medicines is high.
"Novartis is trying to shut down the pharmacy of the developing world,"
Unni Karunakara of the international aid group Medecins San Frontieres, or
Doctors Without Borders, said in a statement.
The group, along with Oxfam, submitted to Novartis a 250,000-signature
petition asking it to drop its case.
Novartis has defended its position and said it will offer its leukemia drug
for free to patients who cannot afford it even if it wins the case.
"We don't fight for Gleevec, we fight for the principle," Paul Herrling,
head of Novartis' corporate research, told The Associated Press in an
interview last week.
"We are deeply convinced that patents save lives. If the patent law is
undermined the way it is happening in India, there will be no more
investment into the discovery of lifesaving drugs," Herrling said.






+++++++++++++++++++++
Sheila Shettle
Senior Communications Officer
M=E9decins Sans Fronti=E8res
Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines
Rue de Lausanne 78
1211 Geneva, Switzerland
+ 41.22.849.8403
+ 41.79.293.0270 (m.)
www.accessmed-msf.org
+++++++++++++++++++++++
SIGN MSF'S 'DROP THE CASE' PETITION

Millions of people around the world today rely on affordable medicines
produced in India.  Pharmaceutical company Novartis is taking the Indian
government to court to force a change in the country's patent law.  If
Novartis wins, a major source of affordable medicines for millions of
people across the globe could dry up.

MSF is urging Novartis to DROP THE CASE.

Find out more and sign up to our petition:
http://www.msf.org/petition_india/international.html