5.11.2006
New threats to cheap meds
As if it wasn't already hard enough to find affordable medicines in developing countries, India's new patent laws are threatening what is already a meager trickle of lifesaving medications. India's pharmaceutical industry has long relied on producing high quality generic equivalents of medicines, some of which pharma had claimed were too complicated to produce in the developing world. These drugs were then distributed throughout the developing world, and long before pharmaceutical companies agreed to lower prices on AIDS drugs, HIV patients were getting better on Indian-produced generic versions of antiretrovirals.
Since the new laws were enacted last year, over 9,000 patent applications have been filed, mostly by international pharmaceutical companies. Pharma wants to seize its opportunity to shut down the factories that are the backbone of international public health initiatives. Gilead, an American company that produces tenofovir, an essential antiretroviral, want to stop production of its generic equivalent in India. They claim that since they are already selling this drug at cost in qualifying countries, there is no need for generic manufacture. But it's a lie--Gilead was supposed to register the drug in 97 countries, and now it is registered in less than 10. So those 87 countries, where generics can be purchased can't afford that medicine now. Gilead, and the other international pharmaceutical companies, want to reinforce the current global system that ensures continued big profits for western manufacturers and continued ill health for the world's poor. Let's hope that the protesters in India, and around the world, can stop them.
Since the new laws were enacted last year, over 9,000 patent applications have been filed, mostly by international pharmaceutical companies. Pharma wants to seize its opportunity to shut down the factories that are the backbone of international public health initiatives. Gilead, an American company that produces tenofovir, an essential antiretroviral, want to stop production of its generic equivalent in India. They claim that since they are already selling this drug at cost in qualifying countries, there is no need for generic manufacture. But it's a lie--Gilead was supposed to register the drug in 97 countries, and now it is registered in less than 10. So those 87 countries, where generics can be purchased can't afford that medicine now. Gilead, and the other international pharmaceutical companies, want to reinforce the current global system that ensures continued big profits for western manufacturers and continued ill health for the world's poor. Let's hope that the protesters in India, and around the world, can stop them.
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