Archive for the ‘Pharmaceutical Drugs’ Category

Is Canada Delivering on its Pledge to Aid Africa?

Tuesday, April 1st, 2008

In 1999, between 1.3 and 2.1 billion people did not have access to essential medicines (around 30% of the world’s population), with most of these people being concentrated in Africa and India.[1] In May 2004, after pressure from Canadian civil society groups and Stephen Lewis (the UN Special Envoy on ...

Protecting Intellectual Property Rights in the Face of a Potential Pandemic

Monday, March 17th, 2008

Issues surrounding medicine patents truly test the moral groundings of patent law.  Specifically, when companies develop and patent drugs that treat life threatening diseases, the inherent morality behind restrictive patent laws seems to lose legitimacy.  The objectives underlying intellectual property must be weighed against the immediate humanitarian agenda.  The anti-patent ...

Thailand’s “War on Drugs”

Tuesday, November 13th, 2007

Thailand is at war, with battles taking place on several fronts. Over 600,000 people in Thailand are infected with HIV and the government is fighting the epidemic by administering HIV treatment and medication through its universal healthcare system. But HIV drugs are costly. In order to provide its people with ...

The Negative Effects of Thailand Invoking Article 31

Tuesday, November 13th, 2007

 In 2003, the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development ("Tufts") estimated the cost to develop a new drug to be in excess of $850 million.  Today, that figure is likely well into the billions.  Tufts also found that approximately 20% of new drugs that enter clinical testing eventually receive U.S. marketing approval.  ...

Good vs. Evil? India rejects Novartis claim on drug improvements

Tuesday, November 13th, 2007

India’s rejection of Novartis’ claim on drug improvements highlights the flexibility of India’s patent laws. Such flexibility stands in sharp contrast to the World Trade Organization’s efforts to set standards for intellectual property regulation (via TRIPS agreement) and has enabled India to ...

Thailand vs. Pharma-Giants: Challenging the Justification for IP

Tuesday, November 13th, 2007

In an attempt to control the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Thailand, the Thai government decided to bypass the patents on anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) by issuing compulsory licenses to manufacture generic copies of these drugs. The result of this gutsy move is affordable, locally-made alternatives that are dispensed to patients for free ...

Novartis challenges Indian IP law

Tuesday, November 13th, 2007

A Swiss pharmaceutical company, Novartis, sought to have the January 2006 decision to reject its patent application for the cancer drug imatinib mesylate (Gleevec) reversed by the Chennai High Court in India. Gleevec is used in the treatment of Leukemia. Novartis sells Gleevec at $2500 per patient per ...

An Innovative Policy in the Law of Innovation: So Why the Outcry?

Tuesday, November 13th, 2007

In January 2006, the Patent Office of Chennai rejected the patent application by Novartis for patent of the drug Gleevec (chemically known as imatinib mesylate). Since then till date, the Novartis saga has prompted numerous headlines and scores of commentaries. What is so unique about the entire controversy? After all, aren’t patent applications rejected by ...

Patent on Improvements- Did the Novartis Case Really Solve the Issue?

Tuesday, November 13th, 2007

India, which followed the approach of process patenting to pharmaceuticals switched over to product patenting by way of an amendment in 2005 in order to be in consonance with the TRIPs agreement. However, India also used the flexibility offered by the WTO rules, which while setting a minimum standard for patent protection, restrained from ...