Healthy Skepticism Library item: 8087

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Publication type: news

't Hoen E, Charveriat C.
What could be more of a short-term fix than the Novartis programme?
Financial Times 2007 Jan 29
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/680576de-af3d-11db-a446-0000779e2340.html

Full text:

Sir, The statement by Dan Vasella, chief executive of Novartis, that the company may have “a longer-term perspective than activists looking for short-term fixes” (“Novartis plea to Indian drug makers”, January 19) strikes us as odd considering the sustainability of Novartis’s donation programme – a true short-term fix.

Undoubtedly, the programme means that patients in India, who would not otherwise be able to afford more than $30,000 per year – what Novartis charges for the cancer drug Glivec – can have access to the drug. But donation programmes cannot guarantee treatment to all patients at all times, in all countries, for all diseases. Moreover, such programmes can be and have been withdrawn, cutting off the lifeline for poor patients. In fact, generic competition is the only globally proven solution to reducing the cost of medicines over the long term. In 2000, first-line antiretroviral drugs cost up to $10,000 per patient per year, but thanks to generic competition, today’s price is just $136 per patient per year.

Novartis’s call for generics companies to supply Glivec free is nonsensical, given that it is actively pursuing a court case against India that would prevent any generics company from even producing Glivec, let alone supplying it for nothing.

The consequences of Novartis’s relentless pursuit of a patent for Glivec through the courts could extend far beyond this one drug. India now recognises patents in accordance with the rules of the World Trade Organisation and this will already have negative consequences on India’s ability to continue to be the developing world’s pharmacy – 50 per cent of Aids medicines in the developing world are Indian generics. Novartis is now seeking through the courts even higher levels of patent protection than India is obliged to provide under international trade rules.

The implications are that India will be unable to produce many life-saving generic drugs, with dire consequences for millions around the world.

Celine Charveriat,

Head of Make Trade Fair,

Oxfam International

Ellen ‘t Hoen,

Director Policy Advocacy,

Médecins Sans Frontières Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines