Patents versus Patients! (Part 2)

I am writing the second part of one of my previous posts titled Patents versus Patients! after a long time. The Indian courtrooms are witnessing a series of battles that are going to determine the fate of millions of Earthlings around the world. It is a war between those who want to kill millions of people by denying them life-saving medicines and those who want to save millions of lives. It is a war between the greed of a few and the lives of millions of Earthlings. In short, it is a war between evil and good! Let there be no doubt in anyone’s mind about which side I support in this war that may lead to more deaths than the Second World War if the killers win.

The right to life is a fundamental Human Right . . . so is the right to access life-saving medicines . . .

Image: www.sciencemuseum.org.uk

First, I shall include a press release from the team of noble international life-savers, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF or Doctors without Borders) below:

The Indian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (INP+), the Manipur Network of Positive People (MNP+), and the Lawyers’ Collective HIV/AIDS Unit officially submitted their opposition to a patent application filed in the Kolkata patent office by Glaxo Group Limited for Combivir, a fixed-dose combination of two AIDS drugs (zidovudine/lamivudine, or AZT/3TC). The opposition is based on technical and health grounds. If India grants a patent on this AIDS drug, it will set a precedent that will hamper access to affordable AIDS medicines worldwide.

“Affordable generic AIDS medicines have been one of the cornerstones of our ability to keep more people alive, including here in India where we began treating people with AIDS this year,” said Dr. Pehrolov Pehrson, of MSF’s treatment project in Manipur, where all patients on antiretrovirals receive generics produced in India. “Without a reliable supply of low cost AIDS drugs – made possible because medicines patents did not exist in India for many years – national governments and treatment providers alike will be faced with an uphill battle, and patients risk having vital treatment interrupted or priced out of their reach.”

Of the over 60,000 patients in nearly 30 countries in MSF projects, 84% receive generic AIDS medicines made in India. Over 90% of all patients using AZT/3TC in MSF projects are on generic versions of the drug. National treatment programmes in India, Burkina Faso, Mongolia, Central African Republic, Malawi, Peru, the Republic of Kyrgizstan, Cambodia, Ukraine and Swaziland heavily rely on generic AZT/3TC. The availability of affordable quality generic versions of Combivir (AZT/3TC) and other anti-retroviral medicines has allowed developing countries to put more people on treatment and thus extend their lives.

The Indian groups opposing the patent are arguing that Glaxo’s Combivir (AZT/3TC) is not a new invention but simply the combination of two existing drugs. They say the granting of such a patent risks increasing the cost of anti-retroviral treatment for many people living with HIV/AIDS, thereby further increasing the burden on developing countries already struggling to treat patients.

“Universal Access to AIDS medicines will remain an elusive goal if there isn’t a steady supply of affordable medicines. Decisions made by Indian patent offices are a question of life or death for people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide who rely on the availability of these drugs made in India,” said Ellen ‘t Hoen, Director of Policy Advocacy at MSF’s Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines.

Last year, India changed its patent law to comply with the World Trade Organization’s patent rules. Three weeks ago, India granted its first ever patent to Roche for a hepatitis C treatment.

However, the Indian Patent law allows oppositions to a patent application before it is granted. Indian cancer patients and generic drug manufacturers recently opposed a Novartis patent application for Gleevec (Imatinib Mesylate), an anti-cancer drug, on the grounds that the application claimed a new form of an old drug. The patent was subsequently rejected by the patent office. Petitioners are now demanding that the Combivir patent application be rejected on similar grounds.

Here is a part of another press release that shows how people are being blinded by denying them access to affordable medicines:

Many patients with advanced HIV/AIDS can fall prey to the infection, cytomegalovirus (CMV) which will if untreated, lead to total and irreversible blindness in a very short space of time – sometimes just weeks.Blindness caused by CMV is preventable, but the most available treatments are invasive and far from ideal – injections directly into the affected eye or intravenous, twice-daily treatment requiring a long stay in hospital.There is a better medicine available – an oral medication, valganciclovir, produced by Roche. This drug is patented in China and the company charges US$ 10,000 for a four-month supply – simply too expensive for the vast majority of people most at risk of going blind. It’s a similar situation in both India and Thailand – both middle- income countries where the product is patented. While the manufacturer offers discounts to the poorest countries – mainly in sub-Saharan Africa – middle-income countries including China are offered no such discount and are charged the same as wealthy countries.Dr. Peter Saranchuk has worked in China in both of MSF’s HIV projects – in Nanning and the recently closed XiangFan project treating patients with HIV/AIDS. He describes his experiences in treating CMV and the frustration of seeing patients suffer because the best medicines are unaffordable.

My previous post Patients versus Patients! focussed on one Swiss company Novartis. Here is another Swiss company, F Hoffman-La Roche that seems to have been involved in a shady deal to obtain a patent in India. A case is going to be filed in the Madras(Chennai) High Court against the violation of fundamental rights as well as the weakened patent law.

Here is the link to another battle that is taking place in the Indian courtrooms, this time between the Brazilian AIDS advocacy group ABIA (Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association) and the Indian NGO SAHARA (Centre for Residential Care & Rehabilitation) on one side and the American firm Gilead Sciences on the other.

Also, take a look at this link to an interesting discussion from the XVI International AIDS Conference.

It is clear from all these links that the Indian courts have become the battleground in a war which will determine the fate of millions of humans around the world. The evil forces will use the dirtiest tricks to succeed in their nefarious designs of killing people by denying them access to life-saving medicines and deriving pleasure in watching them suffer and die. They are true sadists! Shame on them!

(To be continued)

Related post:

Patents versus Patients! (Part 1)

The struggle with oneself !

Sport has been defined by a UNESCO Committee as “Any physical activity which has the character of play and which involves a struggle with oneself or with others,or a confrontation with natural elements“.

Some people say that sport is war without bloodshed.It is much,much more than that.It is all about the war between the two opposing sides of human nature.One that thinks that there is nothing that can be improved and the other one that thinks that everything can be improved.The first kind of thinking leads to decay but the second kind of thinking leads to improvement.

Sport is all about Liberty,Equality,Fraternity and Human Rights !

Photo:Paragliding from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

Sport is about competing with oneself to improve oneself.The confrontation with other competitors or with natural elements is purely coincidental.The kind of confrontation of a person with oneself is truly inspirational.The stories of sportsmen (and women) who have fought against all odds to perform on the field are truly exceptional.Sport is all about the triumph of courage and bravery.It is all about the triumph of truth over dangerous illusion.

I can identify with the struggle of any sportsman (or woman,for that matter).Sport is all about building character.If wealth is lost,nothing is lost;if health is lost,something is lost;if character is lost,everything is lost !

When I watch a goalkeeper make a terrific save,I can identify that with the struggle to save one’s conscience against evil thoughts.

When I watch a defender go all out to keep a forward out of the danger zone,I can identify that with the struggle to save one’s personal space against others.

When I watch a midfielder make a terrific pass,I can identify that with perfect teamwork for the larger cause.

When I watch a forward score an unbelievable goal,I can identify that with the satisfaction of having achieved what one wanted.

When I watch a referee make a bold decision,I can identify that with the struggle to remain strictly neutral despite the tremendous pressure from both sides.

When I watch a racer drive/ride around the same circuit lap after lap,I can identify that with the struggle to constantly better oneself with every attempt.

When I watch a rallyist and a co-rallyist work in perfect unison to drive through a demanding stage,I can identify that with the struggle to unite in thought to achieve a common goal.

When I watch a boxer fight another boxer,I can identify that with the struggle to defend oneself by being aggressive.

When I watch a chess player involved in a silent battle on the board,I can identify that with the struggle to prevent the mind from dying.

When I watch a sprinter run a short distance race,I can identify that with the struggle to extract every cubic millimetre of performance from his/her body.

When I watch a middle-distance runner run a race,I can identify that with the struggle to have the cake and eat it later.

When I watch a long-distance runner run a marathon,I can identify that with the struggle to preserve oneself for the moment to triumph at the end.

When I watch a runner pass the baton to another runner in a relay,I can identify that with the struggle to do one’s best and leave the rest to others.

When I watch a shooter or an archer in action,I can identify that with the struggle to be bang on target everytime one tries.

When I watch a swimmer in action,I can identify that with the struggle to swim against the tide.

When I watch a cyclist in action,I can identify that with the struggle to unite the actions of the heart and the body.

When I watch a fencer in action,I can identify that with the struggle to fight,not the opponent,but evil thoughts.

When I watch a skater in action,I can identify that with the struggle to maintain one’s balance without slipping and falling down.

When I watch a skier in action hurtling down a mountain,I can identify that with the struggle to maintain one’s cool despite being pushed down a slope.

When I watch a mountaineer in action,I can identify that with the struggle to fight all evil concepts and ideas despite the danger involved in such an activity.

When I watch a gymnast score a perfect ten,I can identify that with the struggle to perfect oneself by getting rid of all the demons within the mind and body,heart and soul.

I always admire sport.I always admire sportsmen (and women) for their performances on the field.I always think sport can save humankind from dangerous and evil things like war,oppression and disease.Why,during the peak of popularity for Brazilian soccer phenom Pele,the combatants in the Biafran war in Nigeria declared a two-day truce so they could watch him play.Two South American countries are believed to have stopped a war to watch football.Wars between the Greek city states are believed to have been stopped to hold the ancient Olympics.Even if all of them were temporary,they were fantastic achievements since war,hunger and disease are the greatest perils of our times.

Sport is about fair play.Sport is about team-work.Sport is about improving oneself.Sport is about building character.Sport is beautiful.Sport is bold.Sport is an art.Sport is a science.Sport is hot.Sport is cool.Sport is wonderful.

Sport is all about the triumph of oneself against oneself,not against others or against nature.Unlike other evil and dangerous concepts and ideas,sport is in perfect harmony with the mind and body,heart and soul.

Sport is in perfect harmony with the concepts of Liberty,Equality,Fraternity and Human Rights !

Those four are the greatest concepts in the Universe ! Nothing,absolutely nothing else is above those four perfect ideas !

Long live Sport ! Long live the concepts of Liberty,Equality,Fraternity and Human Rights ! May every other concept that does not benefit all of humankind perish !

Patents versus Patients! (Part 1)

In 2006, the Basel-based Swiss pharma giant Novartis AG filed a court case against India. If Novartis had won the case, it would have meant that millions of people around the world would not have been able to afford life-saving drugs. To find out more, take a look at this link. The court case itself was related to a technical issue about a patent for its drug Glivec/Gleevec that is used to treat leukaemia (blood cancer). Take a look at this link for the details of the case. But the legal challenge by Novartis was not just a mere technical issue. It had much wider ramifications for the whole planet. Had the ruling gone in favour of the Swiss firm, it would have sounded the death knell for public health in many countries around the world.

Fortunately, Novartis lost the case. It might have appealed against the decision of the Madras High Court in the Supreme Court of India. According to Oxfam, “But half a million people around the world rallied behind India and supported her rights to produce affordable medicines, not just for her own citizens but for those in other countries as well. This massive groundswell of support and attention raised this from a technical issue, to one of global and moral significance.” (Emphasis added) Novartis was forced to drop its plan to file an appeal against the ruling due to the immense public support around the world for India.

India stopped issuing patents for drugs in 1970. From then on, it issued patents only for the processes used in the manufacture of drugs. To put it in simple terms, a company could only patent the method of manufacturing a drug and not the drug itself. This led to different companies manufacturing the same drug using slightly different processes. The resulting competition brought down the prices of life saving drugs and brought them within the reach of millions of sick people in India and other countries. India became a producer of high quality generic drugs that were used to treat people suffering from life threatening diseases like cancer, AIDS, diabetes and other diseases at a small  fraction of the cost of patented drugs that were sold in other countries. India became the pharmacy of the developing world. Without the low cost but high quality generic drugs that were manufactured by Indian pharmaceutical companies, the fate of tens of thousands of Earthlings around the world would have been sealed much earlier.

To give some examples, I shall take a few lines from Sarah Hiddleston’s article in ‘The Frontline’, the link to which has been provided in the first paragraph of this post. Sarah wrote, “Without cheaper alternatives from India, there would be nowhere else to go to buy medicines. According to a study conducted by Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF/Doctors Without Borders), 67 per cent of the medicines produced in India are exported to developing countries; approximately 50 per cent of the medicines distributed by the United Nations Children’s Fund in developing countries come from India; in Zimbabwe, 75 per cent of the tenders for medicines for all public sector health facilities come from Indian manufacturers; the state procurement agency of Lesotho, the National Drug Supply Organisation, states that it buys nearly 95 per cent of all antiretrovirals (ARVs) from India. Even countries that manufacture their own medicines rely on imports of active pharmaceutical ingredients from India.”

Such has been the impact of India’s unique process patent law.

(To be continued)