Healthy Skepticism Library item: 18891

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Electronic Source

Silverman E
PhRMA And India Meet Over Compulsory Licenses
Pharmalot 2010 Oct 22
http://www.pharmalot.com/2010/10/phrma-and-indian-meet-over-compulsory-licenses/

Full text:

The US trade group representing the world’s biggest drugmakers are meeting today in India to review a recent proposal that endorsed the use of compulsory licensing to assure that prices – particularly for cancer and AIDS meds – remain affordable. The notion was floated two months ago by the Indian Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion in response to a growing wave of deals in which multi-national drugmakers have been acquiring Indian companies (back story).
“Most of these companies are export oriented,” the DIPP wrote in its paper. “There is a concern that their takeover by multinationals will further orient them away from the Indian market, thus reducing domestic availability of the drugs being produced by them. This may weaken competition leading to headroom for increase in domestic drug prices…There are increasing concerns that if such a takeover trend continues, an oligopolistic market may develop which may result in a few companies dictating prices of drugs critical for addressing public health concerns including fighting front line diseases like HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C.”
Alarmed by the prospect of compulsory licensing and possible restrictions on foreign takeovers, PhRMA is holding a series of high-level meetings with key central government officials in Delhi this week, The Business Standard writes. Meetings will be held today and tomorrow with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), as well as the ministries of health and chemicals. Meanwhile, more than a dozen patient activist groups wrote an open letter to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to urge the government to proceeds with plans to increase accessibility of medicines.