Access to Essential Medicines of M é decins Sans Fronti è res / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) based in Paris. After receiving degrees in International Relations and South Asian and Middle Eastern studies from the universities of Cambridge and Paris, Arkinstall joined MSF in 2002 and worked in fi eld positions in Sierra Leone and Chad, before joining the Access Campaign as writer / editor in 2005. Michelle Childsholds a degree in LLB (Hons) and is Director of Policy Advocacy for the MSF Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines. Her work includes addressing patent and other barriers to access and promoting new models to stimulate innovation and access. Previously she worked for Knowledge Ecology International (KEI), on Access to Medicine and Access to Knowledge issues and as an adviser to the UK Stop Aids Campaign. Before that she held a number of management and advisory positions in consumer and regulatory organizations and started as a solicitor in a London law fi rm handling a range of disputes, including intellectual property.
Multinational pharmaceutical companies patent essential drugs routinely in developed countries. Patents grant a monopoly to manufacture and sell a particular drug to one pharmaceutical company. Drugs are therefore very expensive in developed countries as availability and pricing is dependent on one pharmaceutical company. In contrast with the absence of product patents, Indian pharmaceutical companies manufacture and sell generic drugs at a fraction of the price of patented drugs. In developing countries therefore affordable generic drugs from India are imported and used in the treatment of diseases and illnesses which are life threatening and chronic. AIDS, cancer, mental illness, asthma, and tuberculosis are some of the diseases for which generic drugs are sourced from India. All this is now set to change. The ability of generic pharmaceutical companies in India to manufacture and sell essential drugs at affordable prices to patients and governments in developing countries including in India is at risk due to the amendments in the Indian Patent Act. The impact of the legal amendments to the India Patent Act introduced in 2005 under the TRIPS agreement are going to be felt increasingly across the developing world. In the coming decade as product patents on essential drugs are granted in India to multinational pharmaceutical companies, many of these drugs will become either unavailable or very expensive. The article highlights the importance of generic drug manufacturing in India in the context of AIDS treatment. Legal options before the government of India to limit the impact of patents on generic manufacturing of affordable medicines are discussed with an emphasis on the political nature of the decisions involved.
Healthcare in India needs more funding, not less, says Leena Menghaney, reflecting on services for people with HIV after cuts to some health budgets of as much as 20%
The Delhi High Court has rejected the petition filed by Bayer Corporation seeking to stop the Drugs Controller of India (DCGI) from registering a generic version of a patented cancer drug. The case was filed in 2008 by Bayer to try and introduce "patent linkage", which involves linking the registration (marketing approval) of drugs with their patent status. If Bayer's plea for "patent linkage" had been accepted by the court, it would have undermined public health safeguards contained in India's patent legislation. This comment discusses the Bayer case in the context of efforts by multinational pharmaceutical companies to introduce barriers to generic competition, the only proven means of reducing the prices of medicines to make them affordable to those in need. Bayer has filed an appeal in the Supreme Court, indicating that it does not intend to give up. india is home to a large pharmaceutical generic industry that in addition to meeting domestic needs also supplies the developing world. However, its domestic production of essential medicines is constantly under threatboth from intellectual property norms adopted in trade agreements and from patent disputes that are being brought against the government of india by multinational pharmaceutical companies. in a positive development, the Division Bench of the Delhi High Court stopped the german pharmaceutical company Bayer Corporation's latest attempt to introduce new "patent policing measures" to prevent generic competition in india. By ruling against Bayer on February 9, 2010, the Delhi High Court refused to undermine legal safeguards in india's patent law that help ensure access to more affordable essential medicines for patients in india and other developing countries. However, the battle is by no means over. Bayer has filed an appeal against the decision in the Supreme Court (1).
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