Healthy Skepticism Library item: 12644

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Publication type: news

Treerutkuarkul A.
Novartis offer halts CL plan for imatinib: Free for all leukaemia patients in state care
The Bangkok Post 2008 Feb 1
http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/01Feb2008_news10.php

Full text:

Public Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla has cancelled the compulsory licensing of the leukaemia drug imatinib after receiving a last minute offer from the patent owner, Swiss-based pharma-giant Novartis. Government Pharmaceutical Organisation chairman Vichai Chokewiwat said Novartis had sent a letter of intent agreeing to a government condition on providing the drug free to all patients under the universal healthcare scheme as a trade-off for not seeing its patent overridden.

The company had previously insisted imatinib, which is marketed as Glivec and Gleevec, be provided free only for healthcare scheme patients who earn less than 300,000 baht per year.

Dr Mongkol had turned down the offer because health statistics showed that 10 million of the 48 million people under the state healthcare scheme would not be eligible, Dr Vichai said.

An estimated 900 poor patients under the scheme who have chronic myeloid leukaemia or another rare type of cancer, gastro-intestinal stromal tumour, could receive imatinib through a philanthropic programme to be sponsored by the drug maker.

The drug is not available to the majority of people because of its high cost, about 3,600 baht per tablet. Full treatment costs a patient up to 1.3 million baht a year.

Dr Vichai said two other healthcare schemes _ the social security scheme for employees of private companies and the healthcare scheme for civil servants _ could afford the medical regimen at full price for their patients.

He said the deal not to compulsorily licence the medication could be called off if the drug maker ever revoked its philanthropic programme.

There would not be any memorandum of understanding between the two sides as was previously planned because ‘‘sending the letter of intent was enough’‘, he added.

Dr Vichai said the ministry had not received such a welcome response from the patent owners of three other cancer drugs, one of them also developed by Novartis.

The conditions offered by the patent owners were too complicated and the government would press ahead with the compulsory licensing of the breast cancer drug letrozole produced by Novartis, the breast and lung cancer drug docetaxel produced by Sanofi-Aventis, and the lung cancer drug erlotinib, made by Roche.

Food and Drug Administration secretary-general Siriwat Tiptaradol said the agency has already included imatinib in the national drug list