Even as the Supreme Court is set to hear the public interest petition filed by Cancer Patient Aid Association against the grant of EMR for Glivec on April 1, 2005, the government is seriously thinking of the possibilities of making the drug available at cheaper costs.
The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion under the union commerce ministry is known to have sought the production and supply details of the anti-cancer drug from Novartis India, its manufacturer.
"We are studying various options to make the drug available at affordable prices to the cancer patients. All aspects of the situation would be looked into before the final decision," ministry officials said.
Though the officials denied having taken any decision on the withdrawal of the EMR granted to Novartis for Glivec, they said the government might even think of withdrawal of EMR if there is no other way to ensure sufficient quantity of drug at reasonable prices. The officials said that this official response to the public outcry would be a regular feature in the post product patent days. "We have been assuring that there was no need for panic due to the switch over to product patents. The government would always take care of the public interest," they assert.
The Indian pharmaceutical companies which are into the manufacture of generic versions of the anti-cancer drug felt that the government was likely to withdraw the EMR before the next Supreme Court hearing on the PIL. It should be noted that the petitioners had said that EMR is the violation of the right to health and equality of cancer patients suffering from Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML).
The Petition challenges Patent Rule 53, which restricts the interpretation of public interest in the EMR context as it violates Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India. Further, the petition seeks an order or direction from the Court directing the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority to exercise its power under the DPCO (Drug Price Control Order) and fix the prices of the drugs containing the b-crystalline form of compound Imatinib Mesylate at affordable prices. It also seeks a relief from the Court to direct Novartis to deposit an amount as a security to compensate patients illegally deprived of the drugs containing the b-crystalline form of Imatinib Meyslate equivalent to the sales of the drug Glivec in India for a period of 5 years for which they have been given the EMR in case the patent is not granted to them. As an interim relief, the petition seeks an interim stay on the operation of EMR granted to Novartis.