Pharma Vs India: A Case Of Life Or Death For The World’s Poor

[polly7]

By Nick Harvey

Source: New Internationalist
Sunday, October 21, 2012

"It’s a worrying time for the poor and the sick. Two cases brought to India’s courts by transnational pharmaceutical companies could massively effect whether people in the Global South can access life-saving medicines. The most significant of these involves Swiss drugmaker Novartis which was refused a patent in India for its anti-cancer drug Glivec (imatinib) and is now challenging the country’s patent law.

‘People are already dying because they can’t get treatment and if Novartis wins things will become worse,’ says Eldred Tellis, who runs a centre for drug users and people living with HIV in Mumbai. ‘They are targeting India because many quality generic drugs are produced here for many people.’

Thanks to India’s 1970 Patents Act, around one-fifth of the world’s generic drugs – containing the same active ingredients as a patented drug but made by a different company at a fraction of the price – are made in the country. As well as supplying India’s huge population, these drugs are shipped to poor countries around the world.

‘We source 80 per cent of our global HIV medicines, as well as other medicines, from India – as do the Global Fund,’ says Michelle Childs, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). ‘So what happens in India can immediately affect other countries and set a precedent for them.’"

More: http://www.zcommunications.org/pharma-vs-india-a-case-of-life-or-death-for-the-world-s-poor-by-nick-harvey