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Article

7 Feb 2007

Author:
Roger Bate, Health Policy Outlook, American Enterprise Institute

India and the Drug Patent Wars

According to international medical journals and press coverage of the [Novartis] case, a U.S.-backed pharmaceutical giant is leading an assault on India to prevent the poorest from receiving lifesaving drugs... The reality…is far more complex...Novartis is no villain keeping the poor from receiving needed drugs...Indian patent law is what constricts India’s drug market…[by discouraging] drug companies from operating there, innovating, and working on diseases unique to India...The Novartis case is one of principle. It will not affect most Indian patients, for Novartis distributes the drug [Glivac] free to 99 percent of those who need it in India... [also refers to Ranbaxy Laboratories]