Cheap Aids drugs under threat

Body blow to developing states' fight against disease as Indian MPs ban
copying of patented products

Randeep Ramesh in New Delhi
Wednesday March 23, 2005
The Guardian

The days of cheap treatments for millions of Aids patients around the
world are coming to an end, health agencies warned last night, after the
Indian parliament passed a bill that makes it illegal to copy patented
drugs.

The practice of copying patented drugs has made medicines affordable for
patients around the world. The parliament's move was to fulfil India's
commitment to the World Trade Organisation's intellectual property regime.

The copycat drugs industry in India has forced down the annual cost of
Aids treatment from $15,000 (£7,900) a patient to a little more than
$200 in less than 10 years.

The country's "generics" pharmaceutical industry now provides treatment
to half the 700,000 HIV-infected people in developing countries.

The supply of cheap medicines was only possible because Indian law
hitherto had no product patent constraints.

Critics say the new law will cut off the pipeline of inexpensive future
drugs, such as the "three-in-one pill" of anti-retrovirals for Aids
sufferers.

"Under the new legislation we will see new medicines only available for
the rich, while old treatments will be for the poor," said Ellen't Hoen,
the director of policy advocacy and research at the relief agency
Médecins sans Frontières.

"Many people are building up resistance to the first generation of drugs
and will need the newer treatments. But without the Indian drugs
industry, where will they get cheap drugs from?"

Campaigners say African countries, where health budgets are already
stretched will find it almost impossible to fund the new medicines.

"In Cameroon we pay $200 a year for each Aids patient's treatment, which
is an Indian generic manufacturer's product," said Fatima Hassan of
South Africa's Treatment Action Campaign. "The latest drugs are only
supplied by western multinationals and they cost $4,800 a year. We
cannot afford those prices."

Under the legislation, if a generics manufacturer wants to copy a
patented drug, the Indian government will have to issue a compulsory
licence. The patent holder gets a royalty, but does not have to consent.

But, Ms Hoen says, there are two big problems with the new regime:
pharmaceutical companies can tie up such licences in court for years,
and there is no ceiling on royalties.

"In South Africa, Glaxo tried to charge a 45% royalty. What we are
looking at is a lot of work for lawyers."

Activists were hoping for a review of the bill and a longer public
debate on the issues - Indian MPs were given only a weekend to read the
bill and a couple of days to debate it.

Although there were last-minute concessions, many within the industry
say the bill bears the footprint of multinational drug companies who
considered Indian generic manufacturers to be "pirates".

Ranjit Shahani, managing director of Novartis India, said: "[The bill]
will move India towards the patent mainstream and support and encourage
innovation and investments in research and development."

Many in the generics industry say what is being given away goes against
the national interest. Yusuf Hameid, the head of Cipla, one of the main
generic manufacturers of HIV drugs, says India can "not afford monopolies".

He added: "Medicines in India used to be unaffordable until we adopted
our patent laws in the 1970s.

"Our population and pattern of diseases means we have to increase
affordability and accessibility."