India Compulsory License: A Times of India Article Says It’s Not Helping the Poor

Posted under access, access to medicine, Bayer, Blog, Companies, compulsory license, cost, Diagnostics, drug cost, Essential Medicine, Funding, india, Indian Patent Office, Intellectual Property, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, Natco, patent, Patently BIOtech, Pharmaceuticals, Public Policy, Sorafenib, Startups, Universities, Videos, World Health Organization by biotechnow@bio.org (Biotechnology Industry Organization)

India recently issued a compulsory license on Bayer’s liver and kidney cancer drug (Sorafenib) with the stated goal of providing access to India’s poor. However, the Times of India recently ran the article Cheap generics drugs no panacea for India’s poorest, quickly dispelling this myth:

“The compulsory license system might not really work because poor people cannot even afford the discounted price,” said G. Balachandhran, former head of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), India’s drug price watchdog regulator.

“Instead of dealing on a case-to-case basis, India needs to have a policy that will bring more and more people under medical cover … We need to increase the health insurance penetration, so that even poor people can afford treatment,” he added.

“Only 15 percent of India’s 1.2 billion population is covered by health insurance, according to business lobby group the Federation of Indian Chambers Commerce & Industry, meaning even at a lower price, Nexavar will be out of reach for many.

“Still, the head of Pfizer, the world’s largest drugmaker, told Reuters on March 12 that there were around 100 million people in India with “wealth equivalent to or greater than the average European or American, who don’t pay for innovation”.

While Natco will profit off someone else’s investment and innovation, it seems the company’s compulsory license gift from Indian regulators will do little to help India’s suffering masses.

13 Big Pharmas to collaborate on $785M fight against neglected diseases

Posted under Abbott Labs, Andrew Witty, Big Pharma, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Blog, Companies, Diagnostics, Funding, GlaxoSmithKline, Medical Devices, Medical Supply, Pfizer, Pharmaceuticals, Startups, Universities, Videos, World Health Organization by John Carroll

Top executives from a slate of the world's biggest pharma companies will be rubbing shoulders with Bill Gates today as they roll out an ambitious plan to join hands on a $785 million effort to develop new drugs and distribute therapies designed to eradicate 10 long-neglected tropical diseases by 2020.

For his part, Bill Gates is pledging $363 million of Gates Foundation cash to the consortium to fund research and production. And Margaret Chan, the director general of the World Health Organization, cheered the move, saying that "with the boost to this momentum being made today, I am confident almost all of these diseases can be eliminated or controlled by the end of this decade."

There are 13 Big Pharma companies in the consortium, which is being led by Glaxo CEO Andrew Witty. And as Witty noted, many of the companies have already been beavering away at the NTD field for years. Stung by repeated accusations that Big Pharma was solely interested in big profits, shunning the diseases that afflict the poorest people on the planet, Sanofi ($SNY), GSK ($GSK) and others have been working on their own pro bono projects in the field. Now Abbott ($ABT), AstraZeneca ($AZN), Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb ($BMY), Eisai, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ), MSD, Novartis ($NVS), Pfizer ($PFE) and Sanofi will be working together in a non-competitive field, in which there are no profits to be made.

Abbott, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer will partner on new drugs to treat helminth infections, notably a macrofilaricide, which kills adult worms that cause river blindness and lymphatic filariasis.

"Many companies and organizations have worked for decades to fight these horrific diseases," said Witty in a statement. "But no one company or organization can do it alone. Today, we pledge to work hand-in-hand to revolutionize the way we fight these diseases now and in the future."

- read the press release
- get the Bloomberg report
- here's the story from Reuters

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