India To Issue Compulsory Licenses On Cancer Meds

In the latest move destined to make global drugmakers bristle, the Indian government is taking steps to issue compulsory licenses on three widely used cancer medications in hopes of making these treatments more affordable to a wider swath of its population, according to The Indian Express. The effort comes a year after India awarded a compulsory license to a generic drugmaker to produce a lower-cost version of a Bayer drug called Nexavar that is used to treat kidney and liver cancer, a step that was regarded as a landmark decision at the time and was predicted to usher in still more licenses. After the license was issued, the monthly treatment cost dropped by about 95 percent, according to the paper (back story). The latest decision – which pertains to the Herceptin breast cancer treatment sold by Roche (RHBBY), as well as two Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) medicines, Ixabepilone, which is used for chemotherapy, and Dasatinib, which treats leukemia – was hailed by physicians and patient advocates who maintain that existing prices are too high. “Even after the recent cut in the prices of Trastuzumab and Dasatinib, they are still way too expensive for the common man,” Shyam Aggarwalk, a consultant oncologist at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, tells the paper. “It is a very good move and will not just benefit Indians but possibly also bring down cancer drug prices in countries where the pharma market is not controlled by the US and western European nations.” The ...
Source: Pharmalot - Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Bayer Breast Cancer Bristol Myers Squibb Compulsory License Gleevec Glivec Herceptin Novartis Roche Source Type: blogs