Yesterday was a major victory for Indian Drug Manufacturers like CIPLA and NATCO!! the supreme court of INDIA in a landmark judgement rejected Swiss pharma giant NOVARTIS AG's plea to preserve its patent over cancer drug GLIVEC which is a life saving drug for CML(chronic Myeloid Leukemia).before GLIVEC there was no cure for CML but with the advent of Glivec the survival rate is 95%.
India has an estimated 3 lakh CML patients,Glivec which is sold by Novartis for about 1.2 lakh INR/month (2200us$ APPROX) whereas Indian manufacturers sell the same drug(generic/non patented) with the same efficacy for a monthly cost of 8000 INR(150 Rupees).you can imagine the cost burden on the poor and middle class citizens!
India is a country where the the patent law is given a twist under a section 3(d) which prevents patenting of new forms of the same drugs unless they exhibit enhanced efficacy,the non existence of this section is a loop hole which Pharma giants can bypass in other countries but not in INDIA!!now why am i writing about this?for two reasons.
1.Glivec like several other life saving drugs such as Sutent(kidney and gastic cancer),Pegasys(hepatitis C),Iressa(lung cancer),Nexavar(renal cancer) are sold by Multi national pharma giants at ten times the cost of what indian pharma companies are selling these life saving drugs for!!
so not only is this beneficial for Indian Patients but also the Indian version of these drugs are exported to most third world countries resulting in INDIA emerging as the "Pharmacy of the world" selling over 26 Billion$ worth of low cost generic(non patent) drugs to almost all poor and developing countris.
it is estimated that 80% of HIV/AIDS patients in the developing world are surviving because of low cost Anti Retro viral Indian Drugs.
2.the same applies to Gonadotropin injections for IVF/Surrogacy cases
ivf(In vitro fertilisation) is a very expensive treatment which costs roughly 12,000 to 15,000 US$ in countries such as USA,UK,Canada,Australia and several European countries whereas the same procedure in India Costs 3500 to 5000us$ /cycle)
surrogacy costs 100 thousand us$ above in the USA but in INDIA between 28,000 to 32,000us$.
Big Pharma giants make huge profits but it is also vital for them to give something back to the society also and one way they can do this is by reducing profit margins!!
update on the twin boys born last week to the Couple from the USA.
one of the boys is doing great and feeding well and gaining weight,the second twin's Creatinine levels were rising hence he will be taken for a transurethral incision of the PUV (posterior urethral valve)tomorrow morning and he should do fine!! fingers crossed!
India has an estimated 3 lakh CML patients,Glivec which is sold by Novartis for about 1.2 lakh INR/month (2200us$ APPROX) whereas Indian manufacturers sell the same drug(generic/non patented) with the same efficacy for a monthly cost of 8000 INR(150 Rupees).you can imagine the cost burden on the poor and middle class citizens!
India is a country where the the patent law is given a twist under a section 3(d) which prevents patenting of new forms of the same drugs unless they exhibit enhanced efficacy,the non existence of this section is a loop hole which Pharma giants can bypass in other countries but not in INDIA!!now why am i writing about this?for two reasons.
1.Glivec like several other life saving drugs such as Sutent(kidney and gastic cancer),Pegasys(hepatitis C),Iressa(lung cancer),Nexavar(renal cancer) are sold by Multi national pharma giants at ten times the cost of what indian pharma companies are selling these life saving drugs for!!
so not only is this beneficial for Indian Patients but also the Indian version of these drugs are exported to most third world countries resulting in INDIA emerging as the "Pharmacy of the world" selling over 26 Billion$ worth of low cost generic(non patent) drugs to almost all poor and developing countris.
it is estimated that 80% of HIV/AIDS patients in the developing world are surviving because of low cost Anti Retro viral Indian Drugs.
2.the same applies to Gonadotropin injections for IVF/Surrogacy cases
ivf(In vitro fertilisation) is a very expensive treatment which costs roughly 12,000 to 15,000 US$ in countries such as USA,UK,Canada,Australia and several European countries whereas the same procedure in India Costs 3500 to 5000us$ /cycle)
surrogacy costs 100 thousand us$ above in the USA but in INDIA between 28,000 to 32,000us$.
Big Pharma giants make huge profits but it is also vital for them to give something back to the society also and one way they can do this is by reducing profit margins!!
update on the twin boys born last week to the Couple from the USA.
one of the boys is doing great and feeding well and gaining weight,the second twin's Creatinine levels were rising hence he will be taken for a transurethral incision of the PUV (posterior urethral valve)tomorrow morning and he should do fine!! fingers crossed!
