Honestly, I feel sorry and ashamed about this decision.. I am sure there will be thousands of good reason or so called humane reasons for this decision. But this is simple and pure theft. What is wrong is wrong.. no good humane reasons can justify it..
If I had any capacity to do so.. I would have retaliated by quick and fast penalty on all the companies who will be benefitting from this total cheating and theft of intellectual capital. If you care so much about life then you will bloody figure out ways to pay for it.. rather than simply stealing from someone else's hard work.
I would totally support US governments imposition of penalty on all the exports from such countries who don't respect the very basic foundational laws which create better life and hence better world for everyone..
India rejects Novartis patent
Drugmakers find upgrading medicines problematic in many emerging markets
By Linda A. Johnson
Associated Press
The India Supreme Court’s rejection of a patent for an improved version of a costly cancer drug by Novartis could have big implications for the world’s largest drugmakers. The ruling, which was handed down on Monday, signals the latest shift in the world of drug development in emerging markets such as India and Brazil, where drugmakers have been looking for growth. Western governments routinely grant patents for slightly improved versions of medicines whose patents are about to expire. That enables drugmakers to get many patients to upgrade to their new, generally more expensive versions rather than the cheaper, generic knockoffs even though some doctors and patients argue that the improvements don’t justify the high cost.
But India, Indonesia and some other developing countries have been bucking that trend. They’ve been shooting down Western patents and licensing local pharmaceutical companies to make cheap generic versions of medicines that most of their residents otherwise could not afford.
Major drugmakers such as Pfizer and Bayer on Monday declined to say what they might do regarding the ruling and other recent decisions by poor countries to let local drugmakers sell cheap generic versions for medicines that have monopolies under patents in Western countries. But some industry insiders — including a Novartis executive — predict that multinational drugmakers will decide against doing drug development in India.
“Novartis will not invest in drug research in India. Not only Novartis, I don’t think any global company is planning to research in India,” Ranjit Shahani, the vice chairman and managing director of Novartis India, said after the ruling.
Erik Gordon, a professor and analyst at University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, agrees. He said the ruling means that there’s “no reason to do research and development in India” because of its “national policy of hostility toward medicine patents.”
One thing is clear, though: Emerging markets are not the gold mine that optimistic pharmaceutical executives have been making them out to be.
India’s move casts significant doubt on the companies’ predictions that within a few years, emerging markets will generate one-quarter or even onethird of their global revenue. They’ve been counting on governments and a rising middle class in emerging markets to spend more on their brand-name medicines rather than the locally made drugs that are more likely to be counterfeit.
“Less patent protection in huge, developing markets means less revenue, and growth stories that are going to look like fantasies,” Gordon said.
Recently, India has overturned patents for several cancer drugs, including Bayer’s Nexavar, AstraZeneca’s Iressa, Pfizer’s Sutent and Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Sprycel, according to Mark Grayson, spokesman for the big drugmakers’ trade group, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.
“Certainly companies will take this into account in deciding ... whether India’s a good market,” he said.
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