BIG Pharma says it out aloud!

[Star Wars]

do you understand that, the drug wont be there in the first place if western nations copied your idea?
how is it a moral thing to do, by saving 1000 lives you put lives of whole humanity in danger (just like relative of a plane hijacked by terrorists)

Whole Humanity is in danger anyway ....if the drugs were not patented these drugs would not be available to Indians anyway only to rich westerners.... These people have no qualms selling HIV tainted drugs to several developing countries just to "clear their old stocks" and your talking about humanity in danger ? If these people had their way these drugs would never ever ever be available to Indians ..

let the poor die away, let the cancer patients die away...just to save some retarded pharma companies and the CEO's and some rich millionaires....

yes I did, because most people just repeat what others say without understanding why. or sometimes things appear so obviously true, no thought process is involved in analysing them.
Yes generic drugs is cheaper because you did not spend billions in discovery (majority of newly discovered drugs fail, and only a few are allowed to be sold).

Life is more important than some stupid patenting issue... You will be selfish when saving yourself and your family but act like a complete Hypocrite when its others lives on the line....

 

[livingdead]

Whole Humanity is in danger anyway ....if the drugs were not patented these drugs would not be available to Indians anyway only to rich westerners.... These people have no qualms selling HIV tainted drugs to several developing countries just to "clear their old stocks" and your talking about humanity in danger ? If these people had their way these drugs would never ever ever be available to Indians ..

let the poor die away, let the cancer patients die away...just to save some retarded pharma companies and the CEO's and some rich millionaires....

lolz... nobody is saying pharma companies need not be taken to task for their wrong doings. But why should not anybody try to be rich. The generic indian drug makers are trying to be freeloader and be rich using hard work of somebody else. Cant hide that fact behind fake morality.
If you find it so difficult to understand why patent regime is needed for new drug discovery, I will stop arguing right here.

Life is more important than some stupid patenting issue... You will be selfish when saving yourself and your family but act like a complete Hypocrite when its others lives on the line....

yes , I am a hypocrite and if I was poor and no money I would probably steal food too.
However I will never suggest that is the right thing to do for all and hide behind fake morality.

 

[Star Wars]

lolz... nobody is saying pharma companies need not be taken to task for their wrong doings. But why should not anybody try to be rich.
.

Ummm....you wanted to trust these same drug companies for the future of humanity and pricing these drugs ? common sense ?

The generic indian drug makers are trying to be freeloader and be rich due to hard work of somebody else. Cant hide that fact behind fake morality.

From the permission of the Supreme court of India..they aren't doing it illegally ... and its saving lives..thats what matters

If you find it so difficult to understand why patent regime is needed for new drug discovery, I will stop arguing right here

Whats the point in developing new drugs if these drugs are priced at $58,000 and are not available to 99% of the population... You talk big about discovering new drugs but you don't care a rats *** that it will never be available to the common man as long as you yourself get the drugs...

 

[Developereo]

Chinese are doing this..... we aren't crying about it...Whats the point of the hard work if people can't afford the medicine while the medicine as proven by Indian companies can be made cost effectively to save millions

If the government feels that saving lives is important, then they can form an agreement with the foreign drug companies to legally manufacture the drug locally, while providing a mutually-agreed compensation to the original developers.

The fact that Indian companies are selling the drugs at 3% of the price and mass distributing it proves that the cost of making this drugs are far lower .... Selling these drugs at deliberately higher prices just to get profit is immoral...

The price of a product doesn't depend on the cost of manufacture alone. The Windows CD that you buy costs maybe 3 cents, to make, but the retail price includes the investment that the company made developing the product.

PS. I do agree that the pricing of pharma companies is sometimes predatory. That's partly because they need to raise billions to fund the development of their next drug.

So, in another words you are saying let them die if they can't afford it.

As I wrote above, the government should ink an agreement whereby the foreign companies are compensated adequately, and local companies can produce the drug under license.

 

[Nair saab]

Hehehe India is the Robinhood pandey of Pharma industry ... Stealing from rich and providing it to poor..

Full on Dabanng India...

 

[Sinnerman108]

For Once ... full support for Indians.

Break this patent hegemony. All humans deserve medicine and no one should be denied medical treatment because of $$$ !

 

[Fireurimagination]

If big pharma companies would price their drugs fairly, this situation wouldn't have arise, no point is playing fair with somebody who cheats, anyways the Supreme Court says it's fine so it's fine

 

[Roybot]

How is India leading support to Pakistan? Any exemple?

Anyway looking at drug price i doubt majority in west can afford it. Funny thing is now westeners will buy this Indian medicine instead of paying 1 lakh $ a year. At least those who otherwise will not have any option. While rich people will continue to buh from bayer.

Natco Pharma, the Indian company which is manufacturing this drug has a tie up with Pakistanis company called MediPak for supply of cancer drugs.

Pakistan-based companies have tied up with Indian counterparts recently. Dabur Pharma is supplying an anti-cancer drug to Atco Laboratories, Biocon has tied up with Ferozsons Labs for an anti-tumour medicine, and Natco Pharma has a tie up with Medipak forsupply of cancer drugs.

 

[Star Wars]

If the government feels that saving lives is important, then they can form an agreement with the foreign drug companies to legally manufacture the drug locally, while providing a mutually-agreed compensation to the original developers.

That would have been the frist step... but any compensation would have been disastrous....the drug Glivek is being sold at $58,000 , in India its sold at $1700...no amount of negiciation would those greedy companies ever managed to sell the drug at that cost

The price of a product doesn't depend on the cost of manufacture alone. The Windows CD that you buy costs maybe 3 cents, to make, but the retail price includes the investment that the company made developing the product.

PS. I do agree that the pricing of pharma companies is sometimes predatory. That's partly because they need to raise billions to fund the development of their next drug.

These are the same people who tried to patent a yoga exercise, same people who tried to patant neem tree and same people who said "water is not a right... They have the immorality to price their products extremely high as they know something like a cancer drug will always be on demand. I would agree when it comes to Windows CD... but people lives are a whole different ballgame

As I wrote above, the government should ink an agreement whereby the foreign companies are compensated adequately, and local companies can produce the drug under license.

They would never agree with it , besides these drugs are being exported back to Africa and Asia and also used in treating Americans and Europeans who come for medical tourism to India

 

[Soms]

It was interesting to see the reaction from non-Pharma background people.

If anyone has time please watch the 2013 documentary: Home Page | Fire in the Blood to get a layman's insight.

Big Pharma is the nickname given to the pharmaceutical industry. It basically constitutes of the top 15 Pharmaceutical companies of the world which "market" around 90-95% of the world's pharmaceutical output by value.

Big Pharma along with Big Tobacco and liquor have been the fastest growing organisations in the last 6 decades.
They have managed to overtake Big Oil easily in pure growth and combined market cap.

Companies like Novartis, Pfizer, GSK have powers beyond imagination.
and yes....they do play GOD very often.

I have done my Bachelors in Pharmaceutical Technology and know this side of strategy a bit, since we were taught those in final year.

After 2000 new API(Active pharmaceutical ingredient) discovery has stagnated. The easiest way to ensure patent regime windfalls by Big Pharma is to:

1. Sponsor a promising molecule development (almost ready for Phase 1 trials or past it) from say Johns Hopkins or Georgia tech.
2. Put a lot of money in Phase 2 and start lobbying for it simultaneously.
3. The patent would be shared with the company
4. If it clears for phase 3, the company buys the patent making the developing team rich
5. Tampering of data is the name of the game in phase 3. If the concern is not fatality but something else, the legal time will work overtime to see if any class action suit might come up in future.
6. If everything clicks...viola...you have a BLOCKBUSTER...generating atleast $1 Billion a yearfor the next 20 years. Guaranteed CASH FLOW

Path 2:
This one gets more media attention. Just replace the university team with a Biotech startup!
MultiBrief: Big Pharma replaces innovation with acquisition
These Two Drug Innovators Are on Big Pharma’s Acquisition List | Tech & Innovation Daily | Life Inside the INNOVATION Pipeline

If the government feels that saving lives is important, then they can form an agreement with the foreign drug companies to legally manufacture the drug locally, while providing a mutually-agreed compensation to the original developers.

It does happen. However there hasn't been a single such instance in India when the drug concerned is a life-saving drug v.i.z. Oncology drug or a Retroviral therapy.

Besides I hope you are aware of the patent regime change in India after the Supreme court ruling.
The Supreme Court defends India’s right to deny patents to incremental improvements. (A cheap trick)

How is it played?
Lets say the molecule is ABCDEFGHIJKL - CHO a primary aldehyde molecule.
When the patent is up for expiry, the company will do a lot of trial on adding an alcohol or ketone group somewhere in the molecule and claim it to be more effective thus requesting the renewal of the patent.
The above is JUST PLAIN CHEATING!

The reapplication of Glivec was just greedy!

GOI had a discussion with Bayer over Nexavar for 6 months. Bayer simply said..we don't bargain.
GOI let NATCO to make copies

Drug patents: A fool’s game | The Economist

The price of a product doesn't depend on the cost of manufacture alone. The Windows CD that you buy costs maybe 3 cents, to make, but the retail price includes the investment that the company made developing the product.

The pharma industry doesn't compete amongst their own....unlike software...or even hardware.
I personally don't think this comparison sticks.

PS. I do agree that the pricing of pharma companies is sometimes predatory. That's partly because they need to raise billions to fund the development of their next drug.

Most of them have huge cash piles when compared to their revenue. It doesn't work that way.
Bayer invested $3 Billion for Nexavar over a period of 6 years.....

As I wrote above, the government should ink an agreement whereby the foreign companies are compensated adequately, and local companies can produce the drug under license.

Tamiflu zindabad!

 

[Developereo]

Besides I hope you are aware of the patent regime change in India after the Supreme court ruling.

I am not talking about evergreening, but original drugs.

 

[Cherokee]

I am not talking about evergreening, but original drugs.

No one is taking rights away of original drugs .

 

[Developereo]

No one is taking rights away of original drugs .

If you guys are talking specifically about evergreening, then I am with you.

 

[Cherokee]

If you guys are talking specifically about evergreening, then I am with you.

I dont know about others but i am . 20 years patent is necessary . In the meantime Indian or any govt can share expenses to relieve burden on patients for 20 years . After that its available for everyone .

 

[Soms]

I am not talking about evergreening, but original drugs.

Arey bhai!....Not a single battle has been fought where a novel drug was concerned. It was and always will be for evergreening cases.

For E.g. My batchmate in AZ is the go to guy for Ticagrelor ..an anti-platelet drug (patented in 2010)
He is in a blue ocean as far as this drug is concerned...its AZ's proprietary drug.

BRILINTA is the trade name...it sells for Rs. 700 for 14 tabs
The same drug (completely different packaging) sells for $134 for 30 tabs
Its a 6x price difference.

This is the way to go forward

@Developereo ....i posted this after your post...lol..sorry!