Friday, April 5, 2013
Novartis: decisions, decisions...
Novartis, what exactly is it? Novartis is simply defined as a pharmaceutical company based in Switzerland and Basel. Editor Andrew Rosenthal states the controversy between India and Novartis on how they (Novartis) should not be given the right to patent a certain cancer drug that was similar to its predecessor. This has been an ongoing battle between the two, which led to global attention.
The cancer drug known as Gleevec was the main controversy between India and Novartis.
Gleevec is a cancer drug for leukemia in which is highly effective. The reasoning for this controversy is because India is the world's largest pharmaceutical supplier for generic medicines. The problem is that the same chemicals made from Gleevec, was not allowable in the country and therefore Novartis was not allowed to patent such drug amongst certain countries. As for the United States, the cost for these medicines will not be affected. As a result the poor people will be able to afford such medication. This case was of a great importance because of the influence it had globally.
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Recently one of my colleagues publish an interesting article in her blog Idiocracy. Although I found it interesting I didn't really see the connect it had to United States Government, perhaps if the argument was further developed it would have come around full circle. The article jumped around from topic to topic so I was unable to hone in on the central idea and main argument. While having a global impact is a good start and jumping point for a story, we must stick to American politics as that as we are covering. For years the American public has been at odds with pharmaceutical companies and their tactics; this would have been a good story/example to highlight and lead into the generally immoral actions of these companies, as well as legislation's failure to do anything about it. It was a good effort nonetheless and I commend her for going outside of the general stories in the media and trying to introduce us to something new!
Glivec the cancer cure.
On Friday, April 5th, 2013. Joey Lund created a interesting blog on Novartis which is a pharmaceutical company that offers: innovative medicines, vaccines, eye care, diagnostic tools, over the counter medicine and animal health car products. The blog contained brief information on the cancer treatment called "glivec" and how it was intended to a global product. Her blog was well constructed, but its just lacked a bit of information on the insight of what the medicine was all about and how it was being used in India and other countries.
Novartis attempted patented glivec, but was denied by the supreme court of the worlds largest democracy India. India rejected its medical innovation, saying that glivec wasn't a new medicine but an amended product of its earlier version. India being the largest pharmaceutical supplier for general medicicines as stated in Joey's blog, closely identified the medicine and basically incinuated that glivec wasn't advanced enough to be patented in their country. I could see how this could be, as India feels like its" top cheif" in the global medicine production and wont settle for anything other than great. Glivec, which is a life saving medicine for certain forms of cancer is patented in just about 40 countries, Russia, China, and Taiwan just to name a few. It is given free to just about 99% of its patients, through novartis oncology access program. "Novartis has never been granted an original patent for Glivec in India. We strongly believe that original innovation should be recognized in patents to encourage investment in medical innovation especially for unmet medical needs," said Ranjit Shahani, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Novartis India Limited. "We brought this case because we strongly believe patents safeguard innovation and encourage medical progress, particularly for unmet medical needs. This ruling is a setback for patients that will hinder medical progress for diseases without effective treatment options."-Novartis.com
"Where there is no patent protection there is no investment. And where there is no investment there is no innovation.Minus patent protection, an innovator company can't earn back what it invested in R&D, ergo they can't reinvest their profits in further R&D—further delaying crucial incremental innovation, which is how medical progress is made"- Noah Pines
Overall, I feel as if her blog was good and it was something new, about whats going on in other countries.
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