Novartis Patent Application Defeat in India is Key Victory for Generic Drugs

The vast majority of drug patents given in the United States are for tiny changes that often provide patients few meaningful benefits but allow drug companies to continue charging high prices for years beyond the original patent life.  The result is that the United States pays the highest drug prices in the world, prices that only a tiny fraction could afford in India, where more than two-thirds of the population lives on less than $2 a day.

The recent court ruling allows Indian makers of generic drugs to continue making copycat versions of the drug Gleevec (or Glivec), produced by the Swiss pharmaceutical giant, Novartis, which provides a cure for some forms of leukemia. The ruling’s effect will be felt well beyond the limited number of leukemia patients in India who need Gleevec. It will help maintain India’s role as the world’s most important provider of cheap medicines. Gleevec can cost up $70,000 per year, while Indian generic versions cost about $2,500 a year.

India, as the pharmacy capital of the world, can continue to produce affordable, high-quality medicines without the threat of patents for minor modifications of known medicines.

Patent’s Defeat in India Is Key Victory for Generic Drugs
by Gardiner Harris, The New York Times, 1st April 2013

NEW DELHI — India’s Supreme Court rejected a patent application by Novartis for a major cancer drug on Monday, in a landmark ruling that will permit poor patients continued access to many of the world’s best medicines, at least for a while.
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