Landmark ruling may ensure poor patients around the world will

BIG ONE FOR THE GOOD GUYS! Wish we wore the white hats here, but hopefully we'll follow. Contact your representatives?

Note that the pharmacy industry makes huge profits, among the most profitable of all industries, because people will pay all they have for a drug to save themselves or loved ones. WE would because these days "poor patients" include anyone without particularly good insurance.

Excerpts from the Washington Post, link below.

"NEW DELHI — India’s Supreme Court on Monday rejected drug maker Novartis AG’s attempt to patent an updated version of a cancer drug in a landmark decision that health activists say ensures poor patients around the world will get continued access to cheap versions of lifesaving medicines.

Novartis had argued that it needed a patent to protect its investment in the cancer drug Glivec [Gleevec in U.S., of course], while activists said the drug did not merit intellectual property protection in India because it was not a new medicine."

"The court’s decision has global significance since India’s $26 billion generic drug industry, which supplies much of the cheap medicine used in the developing world, could be stunted if Indian law allowed global drug companies to extend the lifespan of patents by making minor changes to medicines.

Once a drug’s patent expires, generic manufacturers can legally produce it. They are able to make drugs at a fraction of the original manufacturer’s cost because they don’t carry out the expensive research and development."

"Glivec, used in treating chronic myeloid leukemia and some other cancers, costs about $2,600 a month. Its generic version was available in India for around $175 per month." [Novartis had attempted to EXTEND the lifespan of the original patent,  so generic versions of it could not be sold.]