genglob magazine

From Africa’s crowded AIDS clinics to the malarial jungles of Southeast Asia, the lives of millions of ill people in the developing world are hanging in the balance ahead of a legal ruling that will determine whether India’s drug companies can continue to provide cheap versions of many life-saving medicines.

The case — involving Swiss drug maker Novartis AG’s cancer drug Glivec — pits aid groups that argue India plays a vital role as the pharmacy to the poor against drug companies that insist they need strong patents to make drug development profitable. A ruling by India’s Supreme Court is expected in early 2013. Read the rest of this entry »

India’s government for the first time will allow a generic-drug maker to produce and sell cheaper copies of a patented cancer medicine, a decision that pressures brand-name manufacturers to lower prices.

Natco Pharma Ltd. (NTCPH) received a so-called compulsory license to make Bayer AG (BAYN)’s Nexavar, which goes by the generic name sorafenib, and will have to sell it at a 97 percent discount to Bayer’s existing product, India’s Controller General of Patents Designs and Trademarks said yesterday in a statement on its website. Read the rest of this entry »