Novartis making a killing on profit

Legal wrangle puts India's generic drugs at risk through exploitation and profiteering by pharmaceutical company Novartis. Novartis, is at this time attempting to change Indian patent law to prevent them from making cheap generic alternatives to its main brands such as anti-retrovirals for tackling HIV.

"If Novartis gets through with its case our lives are at risk," Monique Wanjala, a woman who has been living with HIV for 13 years, told a news conference in Nairobi. "We want this case dropped," she said. "If we die because affordable generic drugs aren't available, where will they sell the drug? If profits are going to be put before peoples' lives then we have a serious problem."

Novartis charges $10,000 per annum for its anti-retroviral drug, whereas India manufactures it for $70 per annum. Is it me or is Novartis making $9930 on every patient taking its treatment, can anyone justify that level of profit. I know they have to get back the cost of R&D but this seems to me to be inhumane. Full story below

newscientist.com

mod edit: shortened link

[edit on 30-1-2007 by sanctum]

Drug companies justify the high costs of prescription drugs by saying that it's to cover the high costs of their research, experiments, and time spent on developing the drug. When other companies sell the patented drug at a discounted rate, it forces the original company to raise the price even higher to make up for the loss in sales.

Originally posted by carslake
Novartis charges $10,000 per annum for its anti-retroviral drug, whereas India manufactures it for $70 per annum. Is it me or is Novartis making $9930 on every patient taking its treatment, can anyone justify that level of profit.

They made it, they get to decide what it sells for.

The problem is that india has unusual patent laws, they basically allow indian companies to take the result of another companies years of research, investment, and expenditures, and make rip-offs of their product, which they then sell, on their own, for a proft.
Normally we'd call this 'stealing', but, on the other hand, people are dying.

The problem is that if the whole world did this, then we wouldn't have these medecines in the first place. You should notice, that the indian pharmaceutical industry isn't creating new drugs and treatments, becuase its not profitable.

Its a cruel, cruel world. I guess there will be 100,000 dead in the short term, and maybe more in the long run. Oh well they shouldn't have been born in the third world should they.

dismissed

NEXT!!!