[Ip-health] Patents will only benefit patients, claim drug cos

[Joana Ramos]

http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report_patents-will-only-benefit-patients-claim-drug-cos_1274691

Patents will only benefit patients, claim drug cos
Priyanka Golikeri / DNA
Friday, July 17, 2009 1:48 IST


Mumbai: As the issue of patent protection assumes centrestage not only
in India but also in the country's free trade agreements with different
countries, multinationals are dredging up a number of reasons to support
their demand for patent protection. Though patient rights groups feel
otherwise, drugmakers are insisting it is patients who will be the
ultimate beneficiaries if their drugs manage to get patent protection.

Gregory Kalbaugh, the director and counsel of the US India Business
Council (USIBC), a group that authored a study on the value of
incremental pharma innovations, said over the telephone from Washington,
"Incremental innovations are not trivial. Therefore, patenting them
would only expand treatment options and benefit millions of patients in
India."

USIBC counts as its members leading drugmakers like Pfizer and Novartis.

Incremental innovation refers to innovations based on existing knowledge
and existing products. Patents for these innovations are not allowed
under section 3 (d) of the Indian Patent Act, unless the new drug shows
enhanced efficacy over existing drugs.

Kalbaugh said patents work as an incentive for innovation of new drugs.
If they're not provided for incremental innovations, no innovative drugs
would come to the market, depriving patients of wider treatment options,
he said. "No investor would put in money if no patents are guaranteed,"
he added.

But do patients feel the same about patents, which grant monopoly to a
drugmaker? "No," say the Patnaik (name changed on request) couple from
the Sambalpur district of Orissa.

The couple may know nothing about incremental innovation, section 3 (d),
or frivolous patenting, but they do know life-saving drugs are
exorbitantly priced.

The wife has been suffering from chronic myeloid leukaemia for the last
three years. For the couple, spending even Rs 11,400 per month for the
generic version of imatinib mesylate is next to impossible. It is only
because of a patient assistance programme by the Indian Cooperative
Oncology Network (ICON), an NGO with 300 oncologists, that the Patnaiks
have been getting free monthly supplies of the drug for the last three
years.

Imatinib mesylate, the beta crystalline version of which is called
Glivec, is the same drug that Novartis is lobbying hard to get a patent
for. Glivec costs Rs 1.2 lakh for a monthly course, 10 times the cost of
the generic version.

"I work in a factory in Sambalpur and get Rs 5,000 per month. If not for
this programme, we can't even dream of affording imatinib," says the
husband. If it wasn't for the Intellectual Property Appellate Board's
(IPAB) rejection of a patent for Glivec last month, the Patnaiks of
India and even the world would be denied the life-saving drug.

Y K Sapru, founder chairman and CEO, Cancer Patients Aid Association
(CPAA), the NGO that locked horns with Novartis over the Glivec patent,
said lakhs of people cannot afford to pay even for generics. "So how can
people pay for drugs with minor variations which get patents and then
cost huge amounts? The logic that patents lead to more innovation and
therefore benefit patients is absurd."

Amit Sengupta, secretary of All-India People's Science Network,
concurred. "As patents never bring prices down, they cannot be said to
benefit Indian patients," he said.

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