Roche patent for hepatitis C drug challenged in India
3 July 2007. Related: Treatment access.
The Indian Patent Office has received a challenge against Hoffmann-La Roches patent rights for the hepatitis C drug Pegasys.
Public interest groups have said that patent protection and the resultant high price of the drug is making it unaffordable for an estimated 12.5 million Hepatitis C infected people in India. The groups also argued that the product was not an innovation and hence not eligible for patent protection.
Sankalp, a Mumbai-based non-governmental organisation that provides treatment and rehabilitation support to injecting drug users, backed by a group of NGOs led by Lawyers Collective, filed the opposition with the Patent Office on May 18.
Absence of patent protection could help Indian pharmaceutical companies develop cheap reverse-engineered versions of Pegasys, it said.
Source: Business Standard (12 June, 2007)
http://www.business-standard.com/search/storypage_new.php?leftnm=1&leftindx=1&subLeft=1&autono=287446