Novartis to Capture Indian Drug Market

Novartis to Capture Indian Drug Market

- Vidyanand Acharya

Case filed by Novartis will negatively impact access to medicines for millions across the world.

Multinational drug manu facturing company No vartis has posed a serious threat to the Indian drug and health industry. A legal challenge by Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis against India’s patent law could restrict access to affordable medicines in the developing world including India. Pharmaceutical giant Novartis proceeded with its legal challenge against the Indian government in a court hearing in Chennai on 29th January 2007. The court has put a new date in last week of this month. Meanwhile, organisations like - The Indian Network for People with HIV/AIDS (INP+), the People’s Health Movement, the Centre for Trade and Development (Centad), together with the international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), have expressed their concern about the negative impact that company’s actions could have on access to medicines in developing countries and called on the company to immediately cease its legal action in India.

India has long been an important source of affordable essential medicines because the country did not grant pharmaceutical patents until 2005. Generic antiretroviral medicines produced in India are used to treat over 80% of the 80,000 people that receive treatment today in more than 30 countries. India’s law contains provisions that help put people before patents, but Novartis is taking the Indian government to court to force a change in the law. The company is challenging a key public health safeguard enshrined within India’s Patents Act that aims to restrict the granting of trivial patents. If Novartis gets its way, it could mean that essential drugs are more likely to be patented in India, thereby restricting generic production and keeping prices for newer medicines high.

“Novartis is trying to shut down the pharmacy of the developing world,” said Dr. Unni Karunakara, Medical Director of MSF’s Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines, at a press briefing in New Delhi. “We cannot stand by and let Novartis turn off the tap” said Dr. Unni. It is to be noted that Novartis was one of the 39 companies that took the South African government to court over five years ago in an effort to prevent the government from importing cheaper AIDS medicines. This time again the company is doing the same unfair practice in India. the company is challenging a specific provision in India’s patent law that restricts patenting of medicines to innovations only. If the provision were overturned, patents would be granted far more widely in India, heavily restricting the production of affordable medicines that has become crucial to the treatment of diseases across the developing world.

Rules of the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) obliged India to begin reviewing pharmaceutical patents in 2005. The TRIPS agreement, however, includes pro-public health safeguards that countries can implement, and India has merely included some of these in its patent law. The Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health, signed by governments in 2001, reinforced the right of countries to use these safeguards.

“The TRIPS Agreement already makes it difficult for India to produce the affordable drugs that people need,” said Gopakumar of Centad. “By challenging the pro-public health safeguards in the Indian law, Novartis is going even further and is trying to undo the Doha Declaration, restricting access to medicines.” If Novartis wins the case and succeeds in getting the provision of Indian law changed to resemble patent laws in wealthy countries, patents may be granted in India as broadly as they are in wealthy countries. This will mean that fewer and possibly no generic versions of newer drugs will be able to be produced by Indian manufacturers during the patent terms of at least 20 years, and India will no longer be able to supply much of the developing world with cheap essential medicines, said Gopa Kumar of Centad.