Novartis Thwarts AIDS Treatments

Swiss drug manufacturer Novartis has slammed its foot down on Indian makers of generic anti-AIDS drugs because it alleges cheap treatments are cutting into their corporate profits. Doctors Without Borders has been buying the drugs from Indian manufacturers in order to provide life saving treatments to a few of the millions of people suffering from AIDS. Novartis states that the drugs makers are violating TRIPS, a recent a free trade agreement.

“India simply does not obey TRIPS, and our companyhas the right to make profit from its investment in research theretoo,” Novartis spokesman in Belgium Xavier Thiriar says. “India will beone of the largest markets in the world in terms of population, andthey export a lot too.”

However, ‘t Hoen insists that India does
obey TRIPS. “India refuses patent applications for medicines fortrivial improvements of known molecules. That is allowed under TRIPS.”

Such “trivial improvements” can involveremoving a limey taste, says Sigrid Sterckx, professor of ethics and anexpert on patents at the University of Ghent in Belgium. “I find itmorally evident that this should not be patentable. But in Europe andthe US this sort of change is sufficient to get a new patent. Themedicine is then sold more expensively, and people are made to think itis a real improvement.”

viaInfoChange India