[Ip-health] Indian Non-Profit Wants To Break Cancer Patents

[Joana Ramos]

http://www.pharmalot.com/2008/03/indian-non-profit-wants-to-break-cancer-pa=
tents/

Indian Non-Profit Wants To Break Cancer Patents
March 31st, 2008 7:06 am By Ed Silverman

patentsandpatients3.jpgIn a move expected to be challenged by pharma,
Cancer Patients Aids Association, a non-government organization is
planning to seek compulsory licensing in India for about 20 cancer meds
made by Roche, Pfizer, Astrazeneca, Glaxo and Novartis, among others,
The Economic Times reports.

CPAA, which has received support from several Indian and global NGOs
such as Oxfam and M=E9decins Sans Fronti=E8res, was one of the healthcare
groups in the forefront of the successful legal battle against Novartis=92
Gleevec last year. While the NGO plans to first approach the health
ministry to trigger the CL provision, it is ready to go the Supreme
Court if the government rejects to the demand.

=93There is no point in fighting patent cases for individual drugs. How
many patents will we fight against? It is just unaffordable for patients
to pay lots of rupees for these drugs, in addition to paying for other
treatment and medicines,=94 YK Sapru, CPAA=92s president, tells the paper.
=93It=92s an emergency situation when thousands of cancer patients are bein=
g
denied their constitutional right to life. Hence, the government can
invoke CL in the public interest.=94

Product patent laws in India allow national governments to use
compulsory licensing to enable non-patent holders to make and sell
patented drugs, the paper writes. While drugmakers say compulsory
licensing can be invoked only in the case of =93national emergency,=94
healthcare NGOs say under the Indian patent law the government can use
this provision liberally in the =93public interest.=94 During the Gleevec
case, health minister Anbumani Ramadoss had threatened invoking CL in
public interest.

The government should allow generic companies to market the drug in the
domestic market by making generic companies pay royalties to the patent
holder, Sapru says. Generally, these royalties vary from 0.55 to 5
percent. Some of the drugs identified by CPPA for compulsory licensing
include Genentech=92s and Roche=92s Herceptin; Roche=92s Mabthera and Tarce=
va;
Novartis=92 Gleevec; Astrazeneca=92s Arimidex and Zoladex; and Glaxo=92s Hy=
camtin.

=93Under the Indian Patent Act, all life-saving and essential drugs which
are patented and expensive can be granted CL if it they are unavailable,
unaffordable, for government=92s use and for public non-commercial use. It
is wrong to say that it can be granted only for extreme national urgency
or in the case of emergency, =93 MSF=92s access campaigner in India, Leena
Menghaney argues.

According to industry estimates, global drugmakers have filed over 350
patents for cancer drugs in India, where there are an estimated 2
million cancer patients. The CPAA also wants prices of expensive generic
drugs marketed by Indian companies to come down.

Link to Economic Times article: _ *http://tiny.cc/wEkAN*

------------
Joana Ramos, MSW
Cancer Resources & Advocacy
Seattle WA USA
+1-206-229-2420
http://ramoslink.info/
www.bmtbasics.org