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Written By: Admin | Updated : March 24, 2012 10:50 AM IST
On Friday Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding announced plans to launch two cut-price blockbuster cancer drugs for the Indian market soon. Roche, the world's biggest maker of cancer drugs, said it would offer "significantly" cheaper, locally branded versions of its two cancer drugs, Herceptin and MabThera, by early next year, under an alliance with India's Emcure Pharmaceuticals. This seems to be a direct consequence of the recent compulsory licensing verdict.
The verdict allowed Natco to manufacture Sorafenib (97% cheaper), a replicated version of pharma giant Bayer's patented anti-cancer drug Nexavar . This seems to have sent the message loud and clear to multinational pharmaceuticals. Long used to selling patented drugs at exorbitant prices, they can no longer do that, at least not in India.
"The scope is to enable access for a large majority of patients who currently pay out of pocket as well as to partner with the government to enable increased access to our products for people in need," spokesman Daniel Grotzky said. Monthly doses of Herceptin, for breast cancer, and MabThera, for cancers of the blood and lymph system, currently cost around Rs 1.5-2.25 lakh per patient.
"With this strategy, we expect to significantly increase the number of patients treated with our therapies and help patients currently under treatment to continue to use our products properly," he said. The spokesman however refused to divulge the price of the local versions or whether Roceh was responding to the Bayer case. This marks a complete turnaround considering Roche were very vocal about their belief that consumers everywhere should pay the same for their drugs.
P H Kurien, the controller of patents, granted Natco the compulsory licence despite Bayer's patent remaining in force on the ground that poor Indians could not otherwise afford the life-saving drug. Natco will retail Nexavar at `8,800 for a monthly dose, a fraction of the `2.8 lakh Bayer's version costs. The Swiss company said the cheaper versions would be renamed for the Indian market and be packed by Emcure Pharmaceuticals.
However the sad part is even at cut-price rates the drugs still might be too costly for most Indian patients. The Patent Office move on Bayer highlights a growing debate about the cost of modern cancer medicines, which often work far better than traditional chemotherapy but come at a much high price. The decision to give the cheaper versions distinct names for the Indian market may help Roche limit the risk that wholesalers buy up the products and try and re-sell them in premium-priced markets such as the United States and Europe.
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