[Ip-health] Indian cancer group to seek compulsory licensing of cancer drugs

[robert weissman]

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News_By_Industry/Healthcare__Biote=
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NGO to seek compulsory licensing of cancer drugs
31 Mar, 2008, 0336 hrs IST,Khomba Singh, TNN

NEW DELHI: Healthcare groups, campaigning for access to medicines, are
going all out in their fight against drug patents in India. In a move
expected to be challenged by global drug makers, Cancer Patients Aids
Association (CPAA), a non-government organisation (NGO), is planning to
seek compulsory licensing (CL) in India for about 20 cancer medicines of
drug majors such as Roche, Pfizer, Astrazeneca, GSK and Novartis, among
others.

The group has also got support from several Indian and global NGOs such
as Oxfam and M=E9decins Sans Fronti=E8res (MSF). CPAA was one of the
healthcare groups in the forefront of the successful legal battle
against Novartis=92 Glivec last year. While the NGO plans to first
approach the health ministry for invoking 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 lakhs of rupees for these drugs, in addition to paying for other
treatment and medicines. It=92s an emergency situation when thousands of
cancer patients are being denied their constitutional right to life.
Hence, the government can invoke CL in the public interest, =93 CPAA
president Y K Sapru said.

Product patent laws in India and other countries allow national
governments to use the compulsory licensing provision to enable
non-patent holders to manufacture and sell patented drugs. While the big
pharma MNCs say that the compulsory licensing provision can be invoked
only in the case of =91national emergency=92, healthcare NGOs say under the
Indian patent law the government can use this provision liberally in
=91public interest=92 . During the Glivec 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, Mr Sapru added. Generally, these royalties vary from 0.55 to 5%.
Some of the drugs identified by CPPA for compulsory licensing include
Genentech=92s and Roche=92s Herceptin (Rs 1.3 lakh per injection, to be
taken 10-15 times), Roche=92s Mabthera (Rs 1 lakh per injection, to be
taken 10-12 times) and Tarceva (Rs 48,000 for 30 tablets, dosage details
not known), Novartis controversial drug Glivec (Rs 1 lakh for a month=92s
treatment), Astrazeneca=92s breast cancer drug Arimidex (Rs 3429 for 14
tablets, to be taken for 1-2 years) and Zoladex (Rs 8,910, dosage
details not known), GSK=92s Hycamtin (price and dosage details not availabl=
e).

=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 said.

According to industry estimates, global MNCs have filed over 350 patents
for cancer drugs in India. It is estimated that there are over 2 million
cancer patients in the country. The CPAA is not just targetting MNCs. It
also wants prices of expensive generic drugs marketed by Indian
companies to come down.

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Thanks to Pharmalot for catching this story. See:
http://www.pharmalot.com/2008/03/indian-non-profit-wants-to-break-cancer-pa=
tents/#more-12815