Novartis Drop the Case Campaign

What Novartis says: “price doesn’t affect access to medicines”. In a statement issued in 2010, Novartis writes that “acknowledging innovation by granting a patent is unrelated to the access to medicines issue. Improving access to medicines is a matter of making medicines available.” This is not the entire truth. MSF’s field experience in many developing countries shows that when a patent is granted it has a direct bearing on access to affordable essential medicines. Granting a patent on a medicine provides the patent holder with a monopoly on that medicine, which in turn allows the company to charge a high price in the absence of any generic competition. In fact, improving access to...

In 2006 the drug company Novartis took the Indian government to court over its patent law, in a move that threatened access to affordable medicines produced in India for millions of people across the developing world. The company wanted to get the law changed so that they could more easily extend the patents on their products, and stop generic companies producing the same medicines at a fraction of the price. MSF’s Drop the Case campaign, launched in response to this move, gathered nearly half a million signatures calling on the company to drop its case. But six years later, the legal battle continues. India’s Supreme Court is now due to give the final judgement on the case this year. MSF has renewed its campaign call for the...