Novartis loses landmark India patent case on cancer drug

[polly7]

STEPHANIE NOLEN
DELHI — The Globe and Mail

Published Monday, Apr. 01 2013, 2:09 AM EDT
Last updated Monday, Apr. 01 2013, 8:42 AM EDT

India’s Supreme Court ruled against the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis on Monday in a landmark judgment with significant implications for India’s giant generic drugs industry.

“This means millions of patients in developing countries can go to sleep tonight knowing their drugs are on the way from India,” said Leena Menghaney, a lawyer with the Access to Essential Medicines Campaign of Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders). Globally more than 10 million people living with HIV-AIDS rely on Indian generic medications, including many who are treated by MSF; the fate of their drugs hung in the balance in this decision, which pitted Novartis against the Government of India’s patenting system.

Novartis India Ltd. president Ranjit Shahani said the decision is a “setback for patients” because it will hinder progress in developing new treatments for illnesses that now lack them, and creates a chilly climate for multinational firms looking to invest in India because it calls into question the country’s respect for intellectual property.

Full Article: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-business/novartis-loses-landmark-india-patent-case-on-cancer-drug/article10600367/

[pipoman]

1. "India’s giant generic drugs industry"

Nonsense, it should be 'India’s giant counterfeit drugs industry'..much of which is unregulated...have been waiting for the other shoe...someone or many people getting severely ill or dying because of tainted drugs..

[polly7]

2. It seems as though their generic drug industry is of life or death importance for millions.

That law has a provision that aims to safeguard public health by preventing “evergreening” – the practice through which pharmaceutical companies extend patent life by making small changes to the formulations of existing drugs. The Supreme Court on Monday agreed with all the earlier court rulings, saying Novartis had done nothing at all to show that its formulation would actually work better and thus was a new drug deserving patent protection.

The case made its way to the Supreme Court when a collective of activist lawyers took it up on behalf of a cancer patients’ group. Novartis’s brand-name version of the drug cost about $2,200 a month per patient, versus $170 for the generic.

But at stake here was even more than the lives of poor Indians who could not afford their leukemia treatment. The ruling affects India’s entire $26-billion (U.S.) generic drug industry – which supplies almost all of the medicines used domestically, acts as “the world’s pharmacy” and helped to fuel major gains in public health around the developing world over the last 15 years.

In its 112-page judgment – which delves deep into biochemistry, modern Indian history and intellectual property debates, among other topics – the court rejected Novartis’s claims of innovation. Had the court allowed the patent, Ms. Menghaney said, then production of hundreds of other generic drugs could have similarly been shut down, with catastrophic consequences.

[pipoman]

3. I don't disagree..

entirely...and if it was only about serving the poor or even the Indian population it wouldn't matter so much...in fact though, they will ship almost any medication almost any place on the planet without a scrip..then it becomes an intellectual property/health safety issue on a much larger scale..