Healthy Skepticism Library item: 8786

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: Journal Article

Hargreaves S.
Novartis faces growing pressure to drop patent case against Indian government.
BMJ 2007 Feb 24; 334:(7590):383
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/334/7590/383-a?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=Novartis+faces+growing+pressure&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&fdate=1/1/1994&tdate=3/31/2007&resourcetype=HWCIT

Abstract:

The Swiss drug company Novartis is under growing pressure from all sides as its long awaited High Court case against the Indian government began last month in Chennai.

Novartis is challenging the government’s refusal of a patent for the leukaemia treatment imatinib (Glivec) and also section 3(d) of the Indian Patent Act, which restricts drug patents to innovative drugs. The law was designed to make it easier for poor patients to get cheaper generic drugs. If Novartis succeeds in the case, it would signal the start of more stringent patent laws in India and an end to the current trend of lower prices.

“People living with HIV from Lesotho to Laos depend on India for generic equivalents of antiretrovirals,” said Sarah Renn, from the US Student Global AIDS Campaign, which staged protests this week outside the Novartis offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “Novartis’s court case in India could jeopardise sustainable access . . .

Keywords:
Publication Types: News MeSH Terms: Drug Industry/legislation & jurisprudence* Drugs, Generic* Patents/legislation & jurisprudence* South Africa Switzerland Substances: Drugs, Generic