Reuters AlertNet Lite - MSF urges Novartis to drop patents case in India

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MSF urges Novartis to drop patents case in India

19 Dec 2006 18:00:37 GMT
Source: Reuters

ZURICH, Dec 19 (Reuters) - French humanitarian agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) urged Swiss drugmaker Novartis <NOVN.VX> to drop a case over drug patents against India, which it said could risk access to cheap drugs for the poor.

India is a crucial source of cheap generic medicines, but Novartis is challenging an Indian law which blocks the patenting of minor improvement in known molecules.

"India could be drying up as a source of newer and future affordable medicines if Novartis is successful in its challenge against India's Patents Act," MSF said in a statement on Tuesday, ahead of a news conference on Wednesday.

Novartis is also challenging a January decision to reject its patent application in India for its cancer drug Glivec -- known in the United States as Gleevec -- which was turned down because it was for a new form of a known substance.

MSF said it would launch "a global effort to get the company to back down".

The group relies on India for 80 percent of the drugs it uses in AIDS projects involving some 80,000 people in more than 30 countries. Novartis does not sell HIV medicines.

A spokesman for Novartis reaffirmed the group's position that the issue of patent protection was separate from that of access to medicines and that Glivec was available to patients worldwide who were not able to afford it.

In India, 99 percent of patients are entitled to receive Glivec free of charge under a compassionate use programme. But the company has said the court case was a matter of principle that highlighted deficiencies in intellectual property law.

Activists, AIDS campaigners and medical groups are all saying rich nations are taking little action towards meeting their obligations under the so-called Doha Declaration, leaving millions without affordable medicines.

The World Trade Organisation has granted an exemption allowing countries to put public health ahead of patents within its Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights agreement, facilitating the production of generics.

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Last updated:Tue Dec 19 18:02:18 2006