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India Allows Compulsory Licensing Of Bayer's Anti-Cancer Drug Sorafenib To NATCO Pharma
Recently, expert
opinion of Advocate
Rahul Dev, Bioscience Business Lawyer & Patent Attorney, was published
in cover story of BioSpectrum India.
The globally watched
case related to an Indian pharma company's request to the country's patent
office for a compulsory license to make a generic version of Bayer's patented
drug to treat liver and kidney cancer has been settled on March 13, 2012. In a
first-of-its-kind ruling in one of the world's fastest growing pharma makets,
the Indian Patent Office has granted permission to pharma company NATCO to make
anti-cancer drug sorafenib for the India market.
The Indian Patent
Office's ruling is subject to certain conditions, such as maintaining account
of sales, and payment of royalty at six percent of the net sales on a quarterly
basis to Bayer. The order also makes it obligatory for NATCO to supply the drug
free-of-cost to at least 600 needy and deserving patients per year.
Immediate beneficiaries
will be the 29,000 patients suffering from liver and kidney cancer who could
not afford treatment with Nexavar, which was patented by Bayer in India in
2008. Bayer sold the drug for approximately $5,714 for a month's dosage of 120
tablets. The average annual income of an Indian is approximately $6,000. Under
the compulsory license, NATCO will make a generic version of the drug in India
and has been directed to sell it at $180 for a month's dosage, a cost which is
32 times less than that of the original drug. Hailing this order, NATCO opined
that this opens up a new avenue of availability of life-saving drugs at an
affordable price to the suffering masses in India.
To read full article, click
here.
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