New Delhi/Mumbai: The United States on Thursday voiced concern over protection of patents on safer and more effective next-generation medicines in India amid fears that authorities are considering allowing more Indian firms to make new varieties of cheap generic drugs still on patent.
An Indian committee is reviewing up to a dozen patented drugs to see if so-called compulsory licences, which in effect break exclusivity rights, can be issued for some of them, two senior government officials said last month. “I understand that India has issued one compulsory licence, but there’s a lot of concern about what additional licences are being considered,” US assistant secretary of state Nisha Biswal told reporters in New Delhi.
“There’s concern about. whether next-generation drugs would be protected, and how do you ensure that investments that are being made to develop ever-more effective drugs can then be continued.”
In 2012, India issued its first-ever compulsory licence to domestic drugmaker Natco Pharma on a kidney and liver cancer drug, Nexavar, patented by Germany’s Bayer AG. Western drugmakers, including Pfizer Inc, Novartis AG, Roche Holding AG and Sanofi SA, covet a bigger share of the fast-growing drugs market in India.
US industry trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America believes the US should take a tougher line by downgrading it to a Priority Foreign Country, a classification for the worst offenders, which could trigger possible actions, sources said last month.
