qaffassm

Close Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML)

Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis has filed an appeal in a Madras court against a decision not to grant it a patent on a modified form of its Gleevec leukaemia drug. India’s 2005 patent law states that new patents must no be granted to products that represent “incremental innovations” and only protects completely new compounds that were invented after 1995. Gleevec was found to be a new form of an existing treatment that was developed before 1995 – leaving local manufacturers free to copy the drug. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has warned that tens of thousands of people being treated for HIV/AIDS could suffer if the appeal succeeds. MSF says that if the specific provision of Indian patent law that Novartis is challenging is overturned, it would see patents being granted much more widely. MSF says this would restrict supplies of cheap generic drugs that many in the developing world depend on – particularly as India has become one of the chief suppliers of generic drugs in the world. Novartis says it gives free supplies of Gleevac to 6,800 patients in India – representing more than 90 percent of those who suffer from the rare form of the illness that the drug was designed to fight. Novartis also says that the intellectual property rights must be protected if research and development is to continue.

Treatments

Gleevec Working / Worked

Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis has filed an appeal in a Madras court against a decision not to grant it a patent on a modified form of its Gleevec leukaemia drug. India’s 2005 patent law states that new patents must no be granted to products that represent “incremental innovations” and only protects completely new compounds that were invented after 1995. Gleevec was found to be a new form of an existing treatment that was developed before 1995 – leaving local manufacturers free to copy the drug. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has warned that tens of thousands of people being treated for HIV/AIDS could suffer if the appeal succeeds. MSF says that if the specific provision of Indian patent law that Novartis is challenging is overturned, it would see patents being granted much more widely. MSF says this would restrict supplies of cheap generic drugs that many in the developing world depend on – particularly as India has become one of the chief suppliers of generic drugs in the world. Novartis says it gives free supplies of Gleevac to 6,800 patients in India – representing more than 90 percent of those who suffer from the rare form of the illness that the drug was designed to fight. Novartis also says that the intellectual property rights must be protected if research and development is to continue.

Gleevec Working / Worked

Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis has filed an appeal in a Madras court against a decision not to grant it a patent on a modified form of its Gleevec leukaemia drug. India’s 2005 patent law states that new patents must no be granted to products that represent “incremental innovations” and only protects completely new compounds that were invented after 1995. Gleevec was found to be a new form of an existing treatment that was developed before 1995 – leaving local manufacturers free to copy the drug. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has warned that tens of thousands of people being treated for HIV/AIDS could suffer if the appeal succeeds. MSF says that if the specific provision of Indian patent law that Novartis is challenging is overturned, it would see patents being granted much more widely. MSF says this would restrict supplies of cheap generic drugs that many in the developing world depend on – particularly as India has become one of the chief suppliers of generic drugs in the world. Novartis says it gives free supplies of Gleevac to 6,800 patients in India – representing more than 90 percent of those who suffer from the rare form of the illness that the drug was designed to fight. Novartis also says that the intellectual property rights must be protected if research and development is to continue.