[Ip-health] Global pharma firms take a tropical dose

[Sarah Rimmington]

Business Standard (India)
http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage.php?autono=3D309550&leftn=
m=3D1&subLeft=3D0&chkFlg=3D

Global pharma firms take a tropical dose
Joe C Mathew / New Delhi January 03, 2008
Multinationals focus on diseases in developing countries as they lose
protection by patents at home.

The big multinational drug makers are increasingly focusing their
research on diseases that no longer afflict their home countries.

As more and more drugs lose patent protection, their research pipelines
have become full of potential cures for tropical diseases, which ail
developing countries including India.

As many as nine =96 Novartis, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Otsuka, GSK, Pfizer,
Sanofi Aventis, J&J and Crucell - are developing medicine for
tuberculosis, which claims two million lives every year. At least seven
are focusing on malaria, another killer.

Bayer and Sanofi are pursuing research on African trypansomiasis
(Sleeping sickness). GSK is into Leishmaniasis (Kala Azar) research.
Dengue and Onchocerciasis (river blindness) are other favourites.

Novartis, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly and GSK have set up research facilities
and programmes dedicated to tropical diseases.

=93Global pharmaceutical companies are acutely aware of the need for newer
medicines to treat the diseases of the developing world and have some of
their sharpest talent working on research in these areas,=94 said Ranjit
Shahani, vice-chairman and managing director of Novartis India Ltd.

Earlier, Big Pharma put in little investment in drugs for these
diseases, as there was the much bigger market to be addressed in the
developed world, which grapples more with problems related to
cholesterol, blood pressure, etc.

However, many blockbuster drugs that treated patients in the developed
markets are losing the protection provided by patents, resulting in a
rush of generic makers and sharp fall in prices.

New markets
According to a recent KPMG study, drugs worth $65-70 billion are
expected to go off-patent in five years while there are very few new
drugs that can generate similar revenues. The price erosion for drugs
going off-patent is almost 90 per cent in key markets like the United
States.

On the other hand, developing countries like India offer a growing
market and an open field for introduction of new medicines for illnesses
that kill millions of people every year.

=93Emerging economies like India and Indonesia are markets with huge sales
potential. For MNCs, whose R&D has stagnated globally, these regions
offer huge opportunities. Discovering medicines for neglected diseases
makes business sense,=94 Sujay Shetty, PricewaterhouseCoopers pointed out.

In fact, according to discovery pipelines, the multinationals appear to
be far ahead of their Indian counterparts in researching medicines for
diseases neglected so far.

For instance, Lupin is the only Indian company focusing on developing a
tuberculosis drug, while Ranbaxy alone is targeting malaria.

Wrong perception
=93There is the wrong perception that the R&D efforts of multinational
corporations do not focus on diseases primarily affecting the developing
world,=94 said Shahani.

=93Novartis set up the Institute for Tropical Diseases as a public-private
partnership in Singapore in 2002 precisely for this purpose and any new
drug that comes out of research done there will be sold on a
not-for-profit basis. NITD now has more than 100 researchers and support
staff on site.=94

According to the KPMG study, the prospects of healthcare and
pharmaceuticals industry are closely linked to economic growth.

=93There is a view that if the GDP of a country grows by one per cent, its
pharma industry grows by approximately two per cent. If you are going to
have 8-10 per cent growth in the GDP, the pharma industry will grow in
double digits,=94 Brian Tempest, chief mentor, Ranbaxy, says in the study.


--
Sarah Rimmington
Attorney
Essential Action, Access to Medicines Project
Washington, DC
Tel: (202) 387-8030
Cell: (202) 422-2687
www.essentialaction.org/access/