Novartis

So one of the things I worked on over the last three weeks was advocacy on the Novartis case, to be heard in the Chennai High Court on January 29th. This is linked not to the prisons stuff, but to another project I was involved with over the fall term (both projects, however, were done in coordination with Lawyers Collective). While I in fact did very little work - Mike, as the communications guy, put me and my press-release writing efforts to shame - I learned a lot about a very interesting international issue.

Here's the (very brief) scoop on the Novartis case:

Basically, Novartis filed for a patent of Glivec, a drug that treats chronic myeloid leukemia, in India under India's new Patent Law. The patent was denied, because the drug wasn't a novel development - in fact, it was just an old drug (unpatentable under the new Law) with the addition of a salt that technically made it a different compound, without actually altering its results. In response, Novartis sued the government, saying that the Patent Law is unconstitutional and a violation of TRIPS, an international patent regime under the WHO.

This is a big deal because India is the largest generic producer in the world, and if Novartis is successful in getting Section 3(d) (which says drugs must be novel to be patentable) struck down, then manufacturers will make trivial changes in and patent all of their drugs, thus preventing generic companies from manufacturing them. Not only will this prevent Indians from getting access to life-saving medications (for cancer, HIV/AIDS, etc), but it will prevent people in other countries from accessing them as well.

On our side, advocacy has to be delicate, as we don't want Lawyers Collective's name on anything that could be considered controversial before the case is decided. However, we did put out a press release in the name of the Cancer Patients Aid Association that was picked up by a few big publications, including Forbes. The CPAA is the organization that got the patent denied in the first place (the Patent Act allows for a "pre-grant opposition" if someone thinks a patent shouldn't be granted), and is a vocal opponent of Novartis. Mike and I met with the founder of CPAA, Mr. Y.K. Sapru, a couple of times - he's a VERY interesting guy.

In fact, he spent last week in Davos, Switzerland, awarding to Novartis the Public Eye Award. I'm sure most of you know of the World Economic Forum, which was held in Davos last week - the Public Eye Award is granted by an NGO to businesses guilty of dishonorable business tactics, and Novartis was this years' Swiss winner (another award is given internationally). Mr. Sapru had a very inflammatory speech written, which Lawyers Collective begged him to tone down - I'm not sure how much he did so, as he was even trying us to make our press release MORE controversial, but I'm sure it was an interesting address.

Anyhow, if you've got some time on your hands and you're interested in such things, take a look at Oxfam UK's Medicines for Life campaign: http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_you_can_do/campaign/mtf/a2m.htm. It's an issue that might impact us all more than you may expect.