By IANS,
New Delhi : Minister of State for Health Dinesh Trivedi Thursday called for taking “a serious look” at the intellectual property rights regime so that Indian patients are not adversely affected.
“It is time to take a hard look at the intellectual property rights (IPR), innovation, development of new drugs, affordability and accessibility from an entirely new perspective in the new era of the product patent regime,” Trivedi said at the Life Science Conclave here.
The minister expressed concern that “while there is a substantial unfinished agenda on health in terms of providing adequate health care in the developing countries, new and formidable challenges have been thrown up by international trade regimes.”
He said the central government spends nearly 0.4 percent of GDP on health and in collaboration with state governments, the healthcare expenditure is little above one percent of the GDP.
The minister, however, praised the the Indian pharma industry for “its skills to design, develop, test, manufacture generics at a fraction of global prices and even export to other poor countries”. He said that Indian pharma industry helped bringing down the prices of anti-AIDS drug from $10,400 to $300.
“This price efficiency has made the Indian drugs the key component of the global fight against HIV-AIDS,” he said but expressed apprehension that this may change due to the new patent regime.
Many multinational companies are patenting small pharma innovations and shifting the focus from generic drugs. This will make drugs more costly and inaccessible to many, especially in rural areas.