LIVES OF MILLIONS HINGE ON SUPREME COURT’S RULING ON GENERIC DRUGS
Daya Varma
India’s generic drugs are a life-line for millions of sick in India and Africa because they are a lot cheaper than the brand name drugs sold by the giant pharmaceutical companies. For example, India’s generic anti-AIDS drug cost $120 per patient per year in contrast to the same drug, with brand name, which costs $1200 per year.
The ingenuity of chemists and biochemists has made India the pharmaceutical savior of the world reducing the cost of life-saving drugs to patients by more than 20 billion dollars per year.
The Supreme Court of India is to hear the case filed by Novartis starting early April. Novartis wants the Supreme Court to forbid Indian pharmaceuticals from making the generic version of their drug.
Most often, as in the case of the particular anti-AIDS drug in dispute, the giant pharmaceuticals make some trivial modification to an existing molecule and give it a new brand name to appropriate exclusive patent rights for manufacturing and sale.
Novartis lost its case in two lower courts in India and has now approached the Supreme Court.
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