Health rights groups, public interest organisations, cancer survivors and patients, women's groups and treatment activists have welcomed the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoPs) reported move to issue compulsory licences (CL) for three commonly used anti-cancer drugs - trastuzumab (or Herceptin, used for breast cancer), ixabepilone (used for chemotherapy) and dasatinib (used to treat leukaemia).

This move will come as a huge relief to the thousands of women with HER2+ breast cancer whose lives can be saved by trastuzumab, but who are unable to access this drug because of predatory pricing by Roche, which currently controls the drug. A full course of tratsuzumab treatment costs Rs. 6 lakhs to Rs. 8 lakhs at current prices, said Kalyani Menon-Sen, campaign coordinator of The Campaign for Affordable Trastuzumab.

“Drug companies are holding our health hostage to their greed for profits,” she said adding “Roche should not be allowed to get away with such predatory prices. Courts and other authorities like the Competition Commission must take suo moto action against Roche for abusing its dominant position in the market.”

The DoP's move comes close on the heels of the first ever compulsory licence in India issued to an Indian generic manufacturer Natco in March 2012 to produce Bayer’s Nexavar (sorafenib tosylate), a liver cancer drug.    After the issuance of CL, the generic Nexavar is presently available for Rs. 8,880 per pack of 120 tablets (a month’s dose), over 95 per cent cheaper than its pre-CL price.

Meanwhile, in November 2012, the Campaign for Affordable Trastuzumab had written an open letter to the Prime Minister, signed by around 200 cancer survivors, women's groups, human rights and health rights campaigns and treatment activists from around the world, urging the government to make the drug affordable and freely available to patients.

In a related development, a global group of health activists has moved the WHO for the inclusion of trastuzumab in the WHO’s Model List of Essential Medicines (EML) for early stage breast cancer and metastatic cancers. An official submission which lays down the rationale for qualifying trastuzumab as an essential medicine is now under review, sources said. If accepted, this would be a powerful lever for making trastuzumab affordable and widely available in developing countries.