Patent Pools

Hundreds of activists gathered in New Delhi to protest Novartis's attack on India's patent laws in 2007. MSF and others continue to oppose the legal case today. Photo: MSF Q: Why do millions of people rely on India for affordable medicines? A: Drugs produced by companies in India are among the cheapest in the world. That is because until 2005, India did not grant patents on medicines. India is one of the few developing countries with production capacity to manufacture quality-assured generic medicines. By producing cheaper generic versions of drugs that were patented in other countries, India became a key source of affordable medicines, such as antiretroviral medicines to treat HIV/AIDS.  ...

Update on Novartis vs. Union of India, Cancer Patients Aid Association & others in relation to the interpretation of Section 3(d) of the Indian Patent Act Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis took the Indian government to court five years ago, in an effort to overturn Section 3(d) of the country’s Patent Act that was designed to prevent the patenting of new uses and new forms of known medicines. Now Novartis is up to it again and is targeting Section 3(d) once more. The latest legal challenge in the Supreme Court brought by Novartis against the Indian government has the potential to severely affect access to affordable essential medicines for millions of people across the developing world. The final arguments have started -...

New York, NY—Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson is putting the lives of people living with HIV at stake by refusing to participate in the Medicine Patent Pool, a mechanism designed to lower prices of HIV medicines and increase access to them for people in the developing world, said the international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) today. Johnson & Johnson, which holds patents on three key new HIV drugs desperately needed throughout the developing world, has so far refused to license these patents to the Medicines Patent Pool. The Pool has been set up to increase access to more affordable versions of HIV drugs, including fixed-dose combinations that...