Policy Wise

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In a significant judgment, the Chennai High Court has rejected Novartis’s attempt to patent Gleevec in India. The court judgment is being hailed by assorted NGO’s and Indian pharmaceutical companies which make generic drugs. As Bibek Debroy points out, they are missing the whole point.

Third, let’s not confuse broader public health issues with the limited issue of anti-cancer treatment. If we have Novartis in the blue corner, in the red corner we have assorted NGOs (not just Cancer Patients Aid Association) and domestic pharmaceutical companies that produce generic versions of imatinib. NGOs are rightly concerned with the state of India’s health. However, our health outcomes are functions of clean drinking water, sewage treatment, sanitation, immunisation, iron supplements and assorted preventive healthcare elements. These public services are inefficiently delivered. Drugs account for a small share of costs. And even when they do, patented drugs have an even smaller share. After the Madras High Court judgment, now that Novartis has apparently lost the fight, celebrations on account of public health will be unwarranted. India won’t be any closer to Millennium Development Goals on health

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And he concludes,

Sixth, in this heat and dust, we are missing the core issue. Not because of external pressure but because of endogenous reasons and strengths in pharmaceutical research, does India want to protect incremental innovation? As the Technical Expert Group on Patent Law (Mashelkar Committee) pointed out, incremental innovation is not the same as ever-greening. It is bizarre that an IPR report should be withdrawn and go out of circulation because of alleged IPR violation. And we are still ducking the core issue. Do we want to protect incremental innovation because it is good for us, regardless of what WTO, Novartis or the US believes?

Not following a strong patent regime supports the current regime in which the Indian companies have refused to invest in fundamental research, and are more interested in riding piggyback on the research of big Western Pharmaceutical companies. If India has to become a bio-technology major, a strong patent regime is a must.

Related Reading: Tripping over TRIPS.

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