India is one of the world's biggest producers of generic drugs ............ Most of the Poor Aferican and Asian Counties Depend on Cheap Indian Life Saving Drugs For Survival.............For Example Indian-manufactured ARV drugs For AIDS patients costs around $20 a month as compared to $395 for [patented] products.
In 2000 the Indian Drug manufacturers Cipla Stunned the World By saying that they would sell its triple combination therapy drugs to aid agency Doctors Without Borders, also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres, for $350 as long as they were distributed free and $800 per patient per year for normal use...
Ciphla is now offering to sell a three-drug anti-Aids cocktail for less than $140 per patient per year.
Similar drug therapies can cost between $10,000 and $15,000 per patient per year for .............. Big brand-name pharmaceutical companies were then selling their Aids drugs at $12,000 per patient per year.
The Indian parliament has moved a step closer to banning domestic firms from manufacturing low-cost generic copies of patented drugs.
Campaigners say the move will deprive millions of people around the world of access to cheap life-saving medicines.
The bill will ensure India meets World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules.
It has been approved by the parliament's lower house, but must still be sanctioned by the upper chamber before it becomes law.
The new legislation will replace the current patent law, which has allowed drug makers to copy patented drugs as long as they use a different manufacturing process.
This liberal approach has helped to foster a strong drug manufacturing industry in India for more than three decades.
However, the government argues that patent recognition is an essential pre-condition for India's drug industry to further its own drug research and development or attract foreign partners.
Health activists have urged the Indian Goverment to rethink its proposals, claiming that they would see millions of Aids patients miss out on cheap medication.
Ellen't Hoen, of the relief agency Medecins Sans Frontieres, said: "Fifty percent of people with Aids in the developing world depend on generic drugs from India"
"The patent law will cut the lifeline to other countries."
Opposition walkout
The 545-member lower house passed the Patent (Amendment) Bill following a walk out by members of the Hindu nationalist opposition.
They argued the legislation was a "sell-out" to global drug firms.
The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) warned if passed the legislation would trigger a massive increase in the price of patented drugs.
BJP leader V.K. Malhotra said: "The government will be now responsible for the consequences of the bill and the hardships that will heap upon the people."
Speaker Somnath Chatterjee called for a vote after the Congress party-led coalition government pledged safeguards to prevent a hike in prices of crucial pharmaceutical products in India.
Commerce Miniter Kamal Nath said: "The government will have enormous powers to deal with any unusual price rise."
The vote went the way of the government after its Communist allies dropped their oppostion to the bill following concessions.
"Fifty percent of people with Aids in the developing world depend on generic drugs from India"
"The patent law will cut the lifeline to other countries." i
--Ellen't Hoen, Medecins Sans Frontieres
"Because India is one of the world's biggest producers of generic drugs, this law will have a severe knock-on effect on many developing countries which depend on imported generic drugs from India,"
I don't know a whole lot about this stuff but arn't generic drugs like when a company discovers a cure, another company takes their product and makes it themselves. So while the 1st company has to pay for research of actually finding the cure, the 2nd company is able to sell the drugs cheap because they're just stealing the work the 1st company paid to make?
So while the 1st company has to pay for research of actually finding the cure, the 2nd company is able to sell the drugs cheap because they're just stealing the work the 1st company paid to make?
Actually No ............ The patient Laws are Differerent here ...........
In US you Patent the End Product ............ In India you have to patent the Process of making the Drug and not the End Product ............We do not grant patents on final products, but rather on the process used to manufacture them ................. So more than One manufracturer can Produce their Verson of the Drug if they Found Different Ways of making them.
Police in Kenya have stopped hundreds of people living with HIV and Aids from demonstrating at the Indian High Commission in Nairobi.
The protests, also planned in Uganda and Tanzania, are over an Indian draft law which may block poor countries' access to anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs.
According to WTO rules, India is obliged to protect and enforce drug patents from the start of this year.
This will stop routine generic drug production, protesters say.
The production has led to major reductions in the cost of ARV medicines, as well as other medicines that treat other diseases affecting millions of people in developing countries.
Message for India
Some protesters gathered in Nairobi's Uhuru Park, singing to console themselves after the police banned their planned demonstration through the town to the Indian High Commission.
These are $20 a month as compared to $395 for [patented] products
James Kamau
The Aids victims, accompanied by some members of various pressure groups, said it was necessary to let Kenyans know that they may soon not be able to afford medicine in Kenya because of India and the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
James Kamau, a self-declared HIV-positive patient, showed me some of his Indian-manufactured ARV drugs.
"These are $20 a month as compared to $395 for [patented] products," he said.
The police agreed to escort representatives of the protesters to the high commission to hand over their letter of protest.
'Let us protest'
They want India to ignore what they termed "WTO dictatorship", by which India is obliged to observe patents according to its rules on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights.
Although they eventually presented their letter to the high commission, the group complained that they should have been allowed to demonstrate.
They said it was sad that although the government admitted that between 500 and 700 people died in the country daily from Aids-related diseases, it was not ready to give them a chance to express their opinion.
The Indian parliament will discuss amendments to the country's Patent Act of 1970 in the next few weeks.
If the amendment is passed manufacturers of generic drugs in India, where Kenya gets most of its ARVs, will pay some commissions to originators of the drugs for a period of 20 years.
International aid groups have strongly criticised a move by the lower house of India's parliament to pass a new patents law.
It prevents domestic drug manufacturers from making low-cost generic copies of patented drugs.
Campaigners say the move will deprive millions of people around the world of access to cheap life-saving medicines.
"Because India is one of the world's biggest producers of generic drugs, this law will have a severe knock-on effect on many developing countries which depend on imported generic drugs from India," said Samar Verma, regional policy adviser of British charity Oxfam
The France-based Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhi, president of India's governing Congress party, highlighting its concern.
"We are deeply disturbed and concerned that you are failing to listen to the voices of your people who have entrusted you with their welfare," it said.
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