Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
$message = 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 73
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
$stackFrame = (int) 1
$trace = [
	(int) 0 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ServerRequest.php',
		'line' => (int) 2421,
		'function' => 'deprecationWarning',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead.'
		]
	],
	(int) 1 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
		'line' => (int) 73,
		'function' => 'offsetGet',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'catslug'
		]
	],
	(int) 2 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Controller/Controller.php',
		'line' => (int) 610,
		'function' => 'printArticle',
		'class' => 'App\Controller\ArtileDetailController',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 3 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 120,
		'function' => 'invokeAction',
		'class' => 'Cake\Controller\Controller',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 4 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 94,
		'function' => '_invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 5 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/BaseApplication.php',
		'line' => (int) 235,
		'function' => 'dispatch',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 6 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\BaseApplication',
		'object' => object(App\Application) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 7 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 162,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 8 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 9 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 88,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 10 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 11 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 96,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 12 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 13 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 51,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 14 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Server.php',
		'line' => (int) 98,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\MiddlewareQueue) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 15 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/webroot/index.php',
		'line' => (int) 39,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Server',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Server) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	]
]
$frame = [
	'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
	'line' => (int) 73,
	'function' => 'offsetGet',
	'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
	'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {
		trustProxy => false
		[protected] params => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] data => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] query => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] cookies => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] _environment => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] url => 'latest-news-updates/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-latha-jishnu-4682989/print'
		[protected] base => ''
		[protected] webroot => '/'
		[protected] here => '/latest-news-updates/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-latha-jishnu-4682989/print'
		[protected] trustedProxies => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] _input => null
		[protected] _detectors => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] _detectorCache => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] stream => object(Zend\Diactoros\PhpInputStream) {}
		[protected] uri => object(Zend\Diactoros\Uri) {}
		[protected] session => object(Cake\Http\Session) {}
		[protected] attributes => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] emulatedAttributes => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] uploadedFiles => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] protocol => null
		[protected] requestTarget => null
		[private] deprecatedProperties => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	},
	'type' => '->',
	'args' => [
		(int) 0 => 'catslug'
	]
]
deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 73
Cake\Controller\Controller::invokeAction() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 610
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Code Context


        trigger_error($message, E_USER_DEPRECATED);

    }
$message = 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 74
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php.'
$stackFrame = (int) 1
$trace = [
	(int) 0 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ServerRequest.php',
		'line' => (int) 2421,
		'function' => 'deprecationWarning',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead.'
		]
	],
	(int) 1 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
		'line' => (int) 74,
		'function' => 'offsetGet',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => 'artileslug'
		]
	],
	(int) 2 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Controller/Controller.php',
		'line' => (int) 610,
		'function' => 'printArticle',
		'class' => 'App\Controller\ArtileDetailController',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 3 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 120,
		'function' => 'invokeAction',
		'class' => 'Cake\Controller\Controller',
		'object' => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	],
	(int) 4 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php',
		'line' => (int) 94,
		'function' => '_invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(App\Controller\ArtileDetailController) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 5 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/BaseApplication.php',
		'line' => (int) 235,
		'function' => 'dispatch',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 6 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\BaseApplication',
		'object' => object(App\Application) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 7 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 162,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 8 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 9 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 88,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 10 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 11 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php',
		'line' => (int) 96,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 12 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 65,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware',
		'object' => object(Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 13 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Runner.php',
		'line' => (int) 51,
		'function' => '__invoke',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 14 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Http/Server.php',
		'line' => (int) 98,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Runner',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Runner) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => [
			(int) 0 => object(Cake\Http\MiddlewareQueue) {},
			(int) 1 => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {},
			(int) 2 => object(Cake\Http\Response) {}
		]
	],
	(int) 15 => [
		'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/webroot/index.php',
		'line' => (int) 39,
		'function' => 'run',
		'class' => 'Cake\Http\Server',
		'object' => object(Cake\Http\Server) {},
		'type' => '->',
		'args' => []
	]
]
$frame = [
	'file' => '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php',
	'line' => (int) 74,
	'function' => 'offsetGet',
	'class' => 'Cake\Http\ServerRequest',
	'object' => object(Cake\Http\ServerRequest) {
		trustProxy => false
		[protected] params => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] data => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] query => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] cookies => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] _environment => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] url => 'latest-news-updates/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-latha-jishnu-4682989/print'
		[protected] base => ''
		[protected] webroot => '/'
		[protected] here => '/latest-news-updates/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-latha-jishnu-4682989/print'
		[protected] trustedProxies => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] _input => null
		[protected] _detectors => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] _detectorCache => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] stream => object(Zend\Diactoros\PhpInputStream) {}
		[protected] uri => object(Zend\Diactoros\Uri) {}
		[protected] session => object(Cake\Http\Session) {}
		[protected] attributes => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] emulatedAttributes => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
		[protected] uploadedFiles => [[maximum depth reached]]
		[protected] protocol => null
		[protected] requestTarget => null
		[private] deprecatedProperties => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	},
	'type' => '->',
	'args' => [
		(int) 0 => 'artileslug'
	]
]
deprecationWarning - CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311
Cake\Http\ServerRequest::offsetGet() - CORE/src/Http/ServerRequest.php, line 2421
App\Controller\ArtileDetailController::printArticle() - APP/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line 74
Cake\Controller\Controller::invokeAction() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 610
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 120
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51
Cake\Http\Server::run() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 98

Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Code Context
            if (Configure::read('debug')) {

                trigger_error($message, E_USER_WARNING);

            } else {
$response = object(Cake\Http\Response) {

	'status' => (int) 200,
	'contentType' => 'text/html',
	'headers' => [
		'Content-Type' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	],
	'file' => null,
	'fileRange' => [],
	'cookies' => object(Cake\Http\Cookie\CookieCollection) {},
	'cacheDirectives' => [],
	'body' => '<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ba15ef337-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ba15ef337-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr67f0ba15ef337-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ba15ef337-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ba15ef337-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ba15ef337-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ba15ef337-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr67f0ba15ef337-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
</span></span></code>
<span class="code-highlight"><code><span style="color: #000000">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;link&nbsp;rel="canonical"&nbsp;href="<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">Configure</span><span style="color: #007700">::</span><span style="color: #0000BB">read</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'SITE_URL'</span><span style="color: #007700">);&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$urlPrefix</span><span style="color: #007700">;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">category</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">slug</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>/<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr67f0ba15ef337-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$viewFile = &#039;/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp&#039;
$dataForView = [
	&#039;article_current&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 34883,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;India shocks with vaccine patent -Latha Jishnu&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
-Down to Earth&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Why did we grant Pfizer&#039;s claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India&amp;rsquo;s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s claim on its vaccine against pneumonia, the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), marketed as Prevnar13. For a country that has stricter patentability criteria than most others, India&amp;rsquo;s decision was baffling because Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s patent has been rejected by the European Union (EU) and is being challenged elsewhere, too. The strongest opposition to PCV comes from the pharma industry because of the obviousness of the claims made by Pfizer which means Prevnar13 is neither novel nor inventive.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In India too, the claim was challenged by pharma firm Panacea Biotech and global humanitarian organisation M&amp;eacute;decins Sans Fronti&amp;egrave;res (MSF). There are several reasons why the grant of patent here is rather curious. In 2014, rival drugmakers Merck and Novartis succeeded in getting the EU Patent Office to revoke Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s patent by citing a lack of novelty and inventiveness in its method (Pfizer has challenged the revocation and a decision is awaited). In India, where the patentability criteria is far stricter than in the EU or any other country, how did the patent office think it fit to allow the Pfizer claim?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The general speculation is that the National Democratic Alliance government has buckled under pressure from the US Administration at the prodding of its pharmaceutical lobby. Currently, the pressure is said to be intense on account of bilateral trade deals which are in the offing. Whatever the reason, the patent office decision has set a bad precedent.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
MSF&amp;rsquo;s contention that the method Pfizer has patented is too obvious to deserve a patent is similar to Merck&amp;rsquo;s argument made in 2012 that Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s claim of an invention was just the addition of six serotypes to the firm&amp;rsquo;s existing vaccine. Under Section 3d of India&amp;rsquo;s Patent Act, this would automatically exclude Prevnar13 from getting a patent. It is also important to note that unlike in India, Merck and Novartis had to fight a post-grant case in the EU. Post-grant oppositions are harder to fight and take long to be decided.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There is another significant concern in India. It is a question that lies at the intersection of the need to protect genuine innovation and drug affordability. Every year, a million children die globally from pneumococcal disease, which is the leading cause of preventable deaths. A fifth of these deaths occur in India where pneumonia kills more children under five than any other infectious disease. There was much cheering when in May, the Union Ministry of Health announced the inclusion of PCV in its Universal Immunisation Programme. The announcement was facilitated because of generous funding from global vaccine alliance, GAVI which is providing PCV at a subsidised rate of 500 per child for three years. PCV is an expensive vaccine&amp;mdash;it retails for close to Rs 11,000 per course&amp;mdash;and the question is how India can continue the programme in future. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. 
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;Down to Earth, 30 September, 2017, http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758&#039;,
		&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
		&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
		&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-latha-jishnu-4682989&#039;,
		&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
		&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 4682989,
		&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;
	
	},
	&#039;articleid&#039; =&gt; (int) 34883,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | India shocks with vaccine patent -Latha Jishnu&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;Intellectual Property Rights,IPRs,Patented Medicines,patents,pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV),pfizer&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;
-Down to Earth

Why did we grant Pfizer&#039;s claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere?

In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India&amp;rsquo;s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s claim on its vaccine against...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-Down to Earth&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Why did we grant Pfizer&#039;s claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India&amp;rsquo;s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s claim on its vaccine against pneumonia, the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), marketed as Prevnar13. For a country that has stricter patentability criteria than most others, India&amp;rsquo;s decision was baffling because Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s patent has been rejected by the European Union (EU) and is being challenged elsewhere, too. The strongest opposition to PCV comes from the pharma industry because of the obviousness of the claims made by Pfizer which means Prevnar13 is neither novel nor inventive.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In India too, the claim was challenged by pharma firm Panacea Biotech and global humanitarian organisation M&amp;eacute;decins Sans Fronti&amp;egrave;res (MSF). There are several reasons why the grant of patent here is rather curious. In 2014, rival drugmakers Merck and Novartis succeeded in getting the EU Patent Office to revoke Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s patent by citing a lack of novelty and inventiveness in its method (Pfizer has challenged the revocation and a decision is awaited). In India, where the patentability criteria is far stricter than in the EU or any other country, how did the patent office think it fit to allow the Pfizer claim?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The general speculation is that the National Democratic Alliance government has buckled under pressure from the US Administration at the prodding of its pharmaceutical lobby. Currently, the pressure is said to be intense on account of bilateral trade deals which are in the offing. Whatever the reason, the patent office decision has set a bad precedent.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;MSF&amp;rsquo;s contention that the method Pfizer has patented is too obvious to deserve a patent is similar to Merck&amp;rsquo;s argument made in 2012 that Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s claim of an invention was just the addition of six serotypes to the firm&amp;rsquo;s existing vaccine. Under Section 3d of India&amp;rsquo;s Patent Act, this would automatically exclude Prevnar13 from getting a patent. It is also important to note that unlike in India, Merck and Novartis had to fight a post-grant case in the EU. Post-grant oppositions are harder to fight and take long to be decided.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There is another significant concern in India. It is a question that lies at the intersection of the need to protect genuine innovation and drug affordability. Every year, a million children die globally from pneumococcal disease, which is the leading cause of preventable deaths. A fifth of these deaths occur in India where pneumonia kills more children under five than any other infectious disease. There was much cheering when in May, the Union Ministry of Health announced the inclusion of PCV in its Universal Immunisation Programme. The announcement was facilitated because of generous funding from global vaccine alliance, GAVI which is providing PCV at a subsidised rate of 500 per child for three years. PCV is an expensive vaccine&amp;mdash;it retails for close to Rs 11,000 per course&amp;mdash;and the question is how India can continue the programme in future. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758&quot; title=&quot;http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;English&#039;,
	&#039;SITE_URL&#039; =&gt; &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;,
	&#039;site_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change&#039;,
	&#039;adminprix&#039; =&gt; &#039;admin&#039;
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 34883,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;India shocks with vaccine patent -Latha Jishnu&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
-Down to Earth&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Why did we grant Pfizer&#039;s claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India&amp;rsquo;s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s claim on its vaccine against pneumonia, the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), marketed as Prevnar13. For a country that has stricter patentability criteria than most others, India&amp;rsquo;s decision was baffling because Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s patent has been rejected by the European Union (EU) and is being challenged elsewhere, too. The strongest opposition to PCV comes from the pharma industry because of the obviousness of the claims made by Pfizer which means Prevnar13 is neither novel nor inventive.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In India too, the claim was challenged by pharma firm Panacea Biotech and global humanitarian organisation M&amp;eacute;decins Sans Fronti&amp;egrave;res (MSF). There are several reasons why the grant of patent here is rather curious. In 2014, rival drugmakers Merck and Novartis succeeded in getting the EU Patent Office to revoke Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s patent by citing a lack of novelty and inventiveness in its method (Pfizer has challenged the revocation and a decision is awaited). In India, where the patentability criteria is far stricter than in the EU or any other country, how did the patent office think it fit to allow the Pfizer claim?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The general speculation is that the National Democratic Alliance government has buckled under pressure from the US Administration at the prodding of its pharmaceutical lobby. Currently, the pressure is said to be intense on account of bilateral trade deals which are in the offing. Whatever the reason, the patent office decision has set a bad precedent.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
MSF&amp;rsquo;s contention that the method Pfizer has patented is too obvious to deserve a patent is similar to Merck&amp;rsquo;s argument made in 2012 that Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s claim of an invention was just the addition of six serotypes to the firm&amp;rsquo;s existing vaccine. Under Section 3d of India&amp;rsquo;s Patent Act, this would automatically exclude Prevnar13 from getting a patent. It is also important to note that unlike in India, Merck and Novartis had to fight a post-grant case in the EU. Post-grant oppositions are harder to fight and take long to be decided.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There is another significant concern in India. It is a question that lies at the intersection of the need to protect genuine innovation and drug affordability. Every year, a million children die globally from pneumococcal disease, which is the leading cause of preventable deaths. A fifth of these deaths occur in India where pneumonia kills more children under five than any other infectious disease. There was much cheering when in May, the Union Ministry of Health announced the inclusion of PCV in its Universal Immunisation Programme. The announcement was facilitated because of generous funding from global vaccine alliance, GAVI which is providing PCV at a subsidised rate of 500 per child for three years. PCV is an expensive vaccine&amp;mdash;it retails for close to Rs 11,000 per course&amp;mdash;and the question is how India can continue the programme in future. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. 
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;Down to Earth, 30 September, 2017, http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758&#039;,
	&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
	&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
	&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-latha-jishnu-4682989&#039;,
	&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
	&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 4682989,
	&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
		(int) 0 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 1 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 2 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 3 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 4 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 5 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
		&#039;*&#039; =&gt; true,
		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; false
	],
	&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;

}
$articleid = (int) 34883
$metaTitle = &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | India shocks with vaccine patent -Latha Jishnu&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;Intellectual Property Rights,IPRs,Patented Medicines,patents,pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV),pfizer&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;
-Down to Earth

Why did we grant Pfizer&#039;s claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere?

In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India&amp;rsquo;s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s claim on its vaccine against...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-Down to Earth&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Why did we grant Pfizer&#039;s claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India&amp;rsquo;s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s claim on its vaccine against pneumonia, the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), marketed as Prevnar13. For a country that has stricter patentability criteria than most others, India&amp;rsquo;s decision was baffling because Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s patent has been rejected by the European Union (EU) and is being challenged elsewhere, too. The strongest opposition to PCV comes from the pharma industry because of the obviousness of the claims made by Pfizer which means Prevnar13 is neither novel nor inventive.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In India too, the claim was challenged by pharma firm Panacea Biotech and global humanitarian organisation M&amp;eacute;decins Sans Fronti&amp;egrave;res (MSF). There are several reasons why the grant of patent here is rather curious. In 2014, rival drugmakers Merck and Novartis succeeded in getting the EU Patent Office to revoke Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s patent by citing a lack of novelty and inventiveness in its method (Pfizer has challenged the revocation and a decision is awaited). In India, where the patentability criteria is far stricter than in the EU or any other country, how did the patent office think it fit to allow the Pfizer claim?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The general speculation is that the National Democratic Alliance government has buckled under pressure from the US Administration at the prodding of its pharmaceutical lobby. Currently, the pressure is said to be intense on account of bilateral trade deals which are in the offing. Whatever the reason, the patent office decision has set a bad precedent.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;MSF&amp;rsquo;s contention that the method Pfizer has patented is too obvious to deserve a patent is similar to Merck&amp;rsquo;s argument made in 2012 that Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s claim of an invention was just the addition of six serotypes to the firm&amp;rsquo;s existing vaccine. Under Section 3d of India&amp;rsquo;s Patent Act, this would automatically exclude Prevnar13 from getting a patent. It is also important to note that unlike in India, Merck and Novartis had to fight a post-grant case in the EU. Post-grant oppositions are harder to fight and take long to be decided.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There is another significant concern in India. It is a question that lies at the intersection of the need to protect genuine innovation and drug affordability. Every year, a million children die globally from pneumococcal disease, which is the leading cause of preventable deaths. A fifth of these deaths occur in India where pneumonia kills more children under five than any other infectious disease. There was much cheering when in May, the Union Ministry of Health announced the inclusion of PCV in its Universal Immunisation Programme. The announcement was facilitated because of generous funding from global vaccine alliance, GAVI which is providing PCV at a subsidised rate of 500 per child for three years. PCV is an expensive vaccine&amp;mdash;it retails for close to Rs 11,000 per course&amp;mdash;and the question is how India can continue the programme in future. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758&quot; title=&quot;http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;
$lang = &#039;English&#039;
$SITE_URL = &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;
$site_title = &#039;im4change&#039;
$adminprix = &#039;admin&#039;</pre><pre class="stack-trace">include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51</pre></div></pre>latest-news-updates/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-latha-jishnu-4682989.html"/>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
    <link href="https://im4change.in/css/control.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
          media="all"/>
    <title>LATEST NEWS UPDATES | India shocks with vaccine patent -Latha Jishnu | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="
-Down to Earth

Why did we grant Pfizer's claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere?

In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India&rsquo;s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer&rsquo;s claim on its vaccine against..."/>
    <script src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-migrate.min.js"></script>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

        $(document).ready(function () {
            var img = $("img")[0]; // Get my img elem
            var pic_real_width, pic_real_height;
            $("<img/>") // Make in memory copy of image to avoid css issues
                .attr("src", $(img).attr("src"))
                .load(function () {
                    pic_real_width = this.width;   // Note: $(this).width() will not
                    pic_real_height = this.height; // work for in memory images.
                });
        });
    </script>
    <style type="text/css">
        @media screen {
            div.divFooter {
                display: block;
            }
        }

        @media print {
            .printbutton {
                display: none !important;
            }
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="98%" align="center">
    <tr>
        <td class="top_bg">
            <div class="divFooter">
                <img src="https://im4change.in/images/logo1.jpg" height="59" border="0"
                     alt="Resource centre on India's rural distress" style="padding-top:14px;"/>
            </div>

        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td id="topspace">&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr id="topspace">
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-bottom:1px solid #000; padding-top:10px;" class="printbutton">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td width="100%">
            <h1 class="news_headlines" style="font-style:normal">
                <strong>India shocks with vaccine patent -Latha Jishnu</strong></h1>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td width="100%" style="font-family:Arial, 'Segoe Script', 'Segoe UI', sans-serif, serif"><font size="3">
                <div align="justify">-Down to Earth<br /><br /><em>Why did we grant Pfizer's claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere?<br /></em><br />In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India&rsquo;s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer&rsquo;s claim on its vaccine against pneumonia, the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), marketed as Prevnar13. For a country that has stricter patentability criteria than most others, India&rsquo;s decision was baffling because Pfizer&rsquo;s patent has been rejected by the European Union (EU) and is being challenged elsewhere, too. The strongest opposition to PCV comes from the pharma industry because of the obviousness of the claims made by Pfizer which means Prevnar13 is neither novel nor inventive.<br /><br />In India too, the claim was challenged by pharma firm Panacea Biotech and global humanitarian organisation M&eacute;decins Sans Fronti&egrave;res (MSF). There are several reasons why the grant of patent here is rather curious. In 2014, rival drugmakers Merck and Novartis succeeded in getting the EU Patent Office to revoke Pfizer&rsquo;s patent by citing a lack of novelty and inventiveness in its method (Pfizer has challenged the revocation and a decision is awaited). In India, where the patentability criteria is far stricter than in the EU or any other country, how did the patent office think it fit to allow the Pfizer claim?<br /><br />The general speculation is that the National Democratic Alliance government has buckled under pressure from the US Administration at the prodding of its pharmaceutical lobby. Currently, the pressure is said to be intense on account of bilateral trade deals which are in the offing. Whatever the reason, the patent office decision has set a bad precedent.<br /><br />MSF&rsquo;s contention that the method Pfizer has patented is too obvious to deserve a patent is similar to Merck&rsquo;s argument made in 2012 that Pfizer&rsquo;s claim of an invention was just the addition of six serotypes to the firm&rsquo;s existing vaccine. Under Section 3d of India&rsquo;s Patent Act, this would automatically exclude Prevnar13 from getting a patent. It is also important to note that unlike in India, Merck and Novartis had to fight a post-grant case in the EU. Post-grant oppositions are harder to fight and take long to be decided.<br /><br />There is another significant concern in India. It is a question that lies at the intersection of the need to protect genuine innovation and drug affordability. Every year, a million children die globally from pneumococcal disease, which is the leading cause of preventable deaths. A fifth of these deaths occur in India where pneumonia kills more children under five than any other infectious disease. There was much cheering when in May, the Union Ministry of Health announced the inclusion of PCV in its Universal Immunisation Programme. The announcement was facilitated because of generous funding from global vaccine alliance, GAVI which is providing PCV at a subsidised rate of 500 per child for three years. PCV is an expensive vaccine&mdash;it retails for close to Rs 11,000 per course&mdash;and the question is how India can continue the programme in future. <br /><br />Please <a href="http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758" title="http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758">click here</a> to read more. </div><div align="justify">&nbsp;</div>               </font>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-top:1px solid #000; border-bottom:1px solid #000;padding-top:10px;">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>
</table></body>
</html>'

}
$maxBufferLength = (int) 8192
$file = '/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php'
$line = (int) 853
$message = 'Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853'
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emit() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48
Cake\Http\Server::emit() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 141
[main] - ROOT/webroot/index.php, line 39

Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Code Context
            $response->getStatusCode(),

            ($reasonPhrase ? ' ' . $reasonPhrase : '')

        ));
$response = object(Cake\Http\Response) {

	'status' => (int) 200,
	'contentType' => 'text/html',
	'headers' => [
		'Content-Type' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	],
	'file' => null,
	'fileRange' => [],
	'cookies' => object(Cake\Http\Cookie\CookieCollection) {},
	'cacheDirectives' => [],
	'body' => '<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ba15ef337-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ba15ef337-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr67f0ba15ef337-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ba15ef337-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ba15ef337-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ba15ef337-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ba15ef337-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr67f0ba15ef337-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
</span></span></code>
<span class="code-highlight"><code><span style="color: #000000">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;link&nbsp;rel="canonical"&nbsp;href="<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">Configure</span><span style="color: #007700">::</span><span style="color: #0000BB">read</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'SITE_URL'</span><span style="color: #007700">);&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$urlPrefix</span><span style="color: #007700">;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">category</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">slug</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>/<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr67f0ba15ef337-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$viewFile = &#039;/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp&#039;
$dataForView = [
	&#039;article_current&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 34883,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;India shocks with vaccine patent -Latha Jishnu&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
-Down to Earth&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Why did we grant Pfizer&#039;s claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India&amp;rsquo;s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s claim on its vaccine against pneumonia, the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), marketed as Prevnar13. For a country that has stricter patentability criteria than most others, India&amp;rsquo;s decision was baffling because Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s patent has been rejected by the European Union (EU) and is being challenged elsewhere, too. The strongest opposition to PCV comes from the pharma industry because of the obviousness of the claims made by Pfizer which means Prevnar13 is neither novel nor inventive.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In India too, the claim was challenged by pharma firm Panacea Biotech and global humanitarian organisation M&amp;eacute;decins Sans Fronti&amp;egrave;res (MSF). There are several reasons why the grant of patent here is rather curious. In 2014, rival drugmakers Merck and Novartis succeeded in getting the EU Patent Office to revoke Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s patent by citing a lack of novelty and inventiveness in its method (Pfizer has challenged the revocation and a decision is awaited). In India, where the patentability criteria is far stricter than in the EU or any other country, how did the patent office think it fit to allow the Pfizer claim?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The general speculation is that the National Democratic Alliance government has buckled under pressure from the US Administration at the prodding of its pharmaceutical lobby. Currently, the pressure is said to be intense on account of bilateral trade deals which are in the offing. Whatever the reason, the patent office decision has set a bad precedent.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
MSF&amp;rsquo;s contention that the method Pfizer has patented is too obvious to deserve a patent is similar to Merck&amp;rsquo;s argument made in 2012 that Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s claim of an invention was just the addition of six serotypes to the firm&amp;rsquo;s existing vaccine. Under Section 3d of India&amp;rsquo;s Patent Act, this would automatically exclude Prevnar13 from getting a patent. It is also important to note that unlike in India, Merck and Novartis had to fight a post-grant case in the EU. Post-grant oppositions are harder to fight and take long to be decided.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There is another significant concern in India. It is a question that lies at the intersection of the need to protect genuine innovation and drug affordability. Every year, a million children die globally from pneumococcal disease, which is the leading cause of preventable deaths. A fifth of these deaths occur in India where pneumonia kills more children under five than any other infectious disease. There was much cheering when in May, the Union Ministry of Health announced the inclusion of PCV in its Universal Immunisation Programme. The announcement was facilitated because of generous funding from global vaccine alliance, GAVI which is providing PCV at a subsidised rate of 500 per child for three years. PCV is an expensive vaccine&amp;mdash;it retails for close to Rs 11,000 per course&amp;mdash;and the question is how India can continue the programme in future. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. 
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;Down to Earth, 30 September, 2017, http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758&#039;,
		&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
		&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
		&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-latha-jishnu-4682989&#039;,
		&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
		&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 4682989,
		&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;
	
	},
	&#039;articleid&#039; =&gt; (int) 34883,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | India shocks with vaccine patent -Latha Jishnu&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;Intellectual Property Rights,IPRs,Patented Medicines,patents,pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV),pfizer&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;
-Down to Earth

Why did we grant Pfizer&#039;s claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere?

In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India&amp;rsquo;s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s claim on its vaccine against...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-Down to Earth&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Why did we grant Pfizer&#039;s claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India&amp;rsquo;s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s claim on its vaccine against pneumonia, the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), marketed as Prevnar13. For a country that has stricter patentability criteria than most others, India&amp;rsquo;s decision was baffling because Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s patent has been rejected by the European Union (EU) and is being challenged elsewhere, too. The strongest opposition to PCV comes from the pharma industry because of the obviousness of the claims made by Pfizer which means Prevnar13 is neither novel nor inventive.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In India too, the claim was challenged by pharma firm Panacea Biotech and global humanitarian organisation M&amp;eacute;decins Sans Fronti&amp;egrave;res (MSF). There are several reasons why the grant of patent here is rather curious. In 2014, rival drugmakers Merck and Novartis succeeded in getting the EU Patent Office to revoke Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s patent by citing a lack of novelty and inventiveness in its method (Pfizer has challenged the revocation and a decision is awaited). In India, where the patentability criteria is far stricter than in the EU or any other country, how did the patent office think it fit to allow the Pfizer claim?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The general speculation is that the National Democratic Alliance government has buckled under pressure from the US Administration at the prodding of its pharmaceutical lobby. Currently, the pressure is said to be intense on account of bilateral trade deals which are in the offing. Whatever the reason, the patent office decision has set a bad precedent.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;MSF&amp;rsquo;s contention that the method Pfizer has patented is too obvious to deserve a patent is similar to Merck&amp;rsquo;s argument made in 2012 that Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s claim of an invention was just the addition of six serotypes to the firm&amp;rsquo;s existing vaccine. Under Section 3d of India&amp;rsquo;s Patent Act, this would automatically exclude Prevnar13 from getting a patent. It is also important to note that unlike in India, Merck and Novartis had to fight a post-grant case in the EU. Post-grant oppositions are harder to fight and take long to be decided.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There is another significant concern in India. It is a question that lies at the intersection of the need to protect genuine innovation and drug affordability. Every year, a million children die globally from pneumococcal disease, which is the leading cause of preventable deaths. A fifth of these deaths occur in India where pneumonia kills more children under five than any other infectious disease. There was much cheering when in May, the Union Ministry of Health announced the inclusion of PCV in its Universal Immunisation Programme. The announcement was facilitated because of generous funding from global vaccine alliance, GAVI which is providing PCV at a subsidised rate of 500 per child for three years. PCV is an expensive vaccine&amp;mdash;it retails for close to Rs 11,000 per course&amp;mdash;and the question is how India can continue the programme in future. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758&quot; title=&quot;http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;English&#039;,
	&#039;SITE_URL&#039; =&gt; &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;,
	&#039;site_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change&#039;,
	&#039;adminprix&#039; =&gt; &#039;admin&#039;
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 34883,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;India shocks with vaccine patent -Latha Jishnu&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
-Down to Earth&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Why did we grant Pfizer&#039;s claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India&amp;rsquo;s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s claim on its vaccine against pneumonia, the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), marketed as Prevnar13. For a country that has stricter patentability criteria than most others, India&amp;rsquo;s decision was baffling because Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s patent has been rejected by the European Union (EU) and is being challenged elsewhere, too. The strongest opposition to PCV comes from the pharma industry because of the obviousness of the claims made by Pfizer which means Prevnar13 is neither novel nor inventive.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In India too, the claim was challenged by pharma firm Panacea Biotech and global humanitarian organisation M&amp;eacute;decins Sans Fronti&amp;egrave;res (MSF). There are several reasons why the grant of patent here is rather curious. In 2014, rival drugmakers Merck and Novartis succeeded in getting the EU Patent Office to revoke Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s patent by citing a lack of novelty and inventiveness in its method (Pfizer has challenged the revocation and a decision is awaited). In India, where the patentability criteria is far stricter than in the EU or any other country, how did the patent office think it fit to allow the Pfizer claim?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The general speculation is that the National Democratic Alliance government has buckled under pressure from the US Administration at the prodding of its pharmaceutical lobby. Currently, the pressure is said to be intense on account of bilateral trade deals which are in the offing. Whatever the reason, the patent office decision has set a bad precedent.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
MSF&amp;rsquo;s contention that the method Pfizer has patented is too obvious to deserve a patent is similar to Merck&amp;rsquo;s argument made in 2012 that Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s claim of an invention was just the addition of six serotypes to the firm&amp;rsquo;s existing vaccine. Under Section 3d of India&amp;rsquo;s Patent Act, this would automatically exclude Prevnar13 from getting a patent. It is also important to note that unlike in India, Merck and Novartis had to fight a post-grant case in the EU. Post-grant oppositions are harder to fight and take long to be decided.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There is another significant concern in India. It is a question that lies at the intersection of the need to protect genuine innovation and drug affordability. Every year, a million children die globally from pneumococcal disease, which is the leading cause of preventable deaths. A fifth of these deaths occur in India where pneumonia kills more children under five than any other infectious disease. There was much cheering when in May, the Union Ministry of Health announced the inclusion of PCV in its Universal Immunisation Programme. The announcement was facilitated because of generous funding from global vaccine alliance, GAVI which is providing PCV at a subsidised rate of 500 per child for three years. PCV is an expensive vaccine&amp;mdash;it retails for close to Rs 11,000 per course&amp;mdash;and the question is how India can continue the programme in future. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. 
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;Down to Earth, 30 September, 2017, http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758&#039;,
	&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
	&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
	&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-latha-jishnu-4682989&#039;,
	&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
	&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 4682989,
	&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
		(int) 0 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 1 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 2 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 3 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 4 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 5 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
		&#039;*&#039; =&gt; true,
		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; false
	],
	&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;

}
$articleid = (int) 34883
$metaTitle = &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | India shocks with vaccine patent -Latha Jishnu&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;Intellectual Property Rights,IPRs,Patented Medicines,patents,pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV),pfizer&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;
-Down to Earth

Why did we grant Pfizer&#039;s claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere?

In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India&amp;rsquo;s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s claim on its vaccine against...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-Down to Earth&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Why did we grant Pfizer&#039;s claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India&amp;rsquo;s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s claim on its vaccine against pneumonia, the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), marketed as Prevnar13. For a country that has stricter patentability criteria than most others, India&amp;rsquo;s decision was baffling because Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s patent has been rejected by the European Union (EU) and is being challenged elsewhere, too. The strongest opposition to PCV comes from the pharma industry because of the obviousness of the claims made by Pfizer which means Prevnar13 is neither novel nor inventive.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In India too, the claim was challenged by pharma firm Panacea Biotech and global humanitarian organisation M&amp;eacute;decins Sans Fronti&amp;egrave;res (MSF). There are several reasons why the grant of patent here is rather curious. In 2014, rival drugmakers Merck and Novartis succeeded in getting the EU Patent Office to revoke Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s patent by citing a lack of novelty and inventiveness in its method (Pfizer has challenged the revocation and a decision is awaited). In India, where the patentability criteria is far stricter than in the EU or any other country, how did the patent office think it fit to allow the Pfizer claim?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The general speculation is that the National Democratic Alliance government has buckled under pressure from the US Administration at the prodding of its pharmaceutical lobby. Currently, the pressure is said to be intense on account of bilateral trade deals which are in the offing. Whatever the reason, the patent office decision has set a bad precedent.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;MSF&amp;rsquo;s contention that the method Pfizer has patented is too obvious to deserve a patent is similar to Merck&amp;rsquo;s argument made in 2012 that Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s claim of an invention was just the addition of six serotypes to the firm&amp;rsquo;s existing vaccine. Under Section 3d of India&amp;rsquo;s Patent Act, this would automatically exclude Prevnar13 from getting a patent. It is also important to note that unlike in India, Merck and Novartis had to fight a post-grant case in the EU. Post-grant oppositions are harder to fight and take long to be decided.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There is another significant concern in India. It is a question that lies at the intersection of the need to protect genuine innovation and drug affordability. Every year, a million children die globally from pneumococcal disease, which is the leading cause of preventable deaths. A fifth of these deaths occur in India where pneumonia kills more children under five than any other infectious disease. There was much cheering when in May, the Union Ministry of Health announced the inclusion of PCV in its Universal Immunisation Programme. The announcement was facilitated because of generous funding from global vaccine alliance, GAVI which is providing PCV at a subsidised rate of 500 per child for three years. PCV is an expensive vaccine&amp;mdash;it retails for close to Rs 11,000 per course&amp;mdash;and the question is how India can continue the programme in future. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758&quot; title=&quot;http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;
$lang = &#039;English&#039;
$SITE_URL = &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;
$site_title = &#039;im4change&#039;
$adminprix = &#039;admin&#039;</pre><pre class="stack-trace">include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51</pre></div></pre>latest-news-updates/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-latha-jishnu-4682989.html"/>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
    <link href="https://im4change.in/css/control.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
          media="all"/>
    <title>LATEST NEWS UPDATES | India shocks with vaccine patent -Latha Jishnu | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="
-Down to Earth

Why did we grant Pfizer's claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere?

In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India&rsquo;s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer&rsquo;s claim on its vaccine against..."/>
    <script src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-migrate.min.js"></script>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

        $(document).ready(function () {
            var img = $("img")[0]; // Get my img elem
            var pic_real_width, pic_real_height;
            $("<img/>") // Make in memory copy of image to avoid css issues
                .attr("src", $(img).attr("src"))
                .load(function () {
                    pic_real_width = this.width;   // Note: $(this).width() will not
                    pic_real_height = this.height; // work for in memory images.
                });
        });
    </script>
    <style type="text/css">
        @media screen {
            div.divFooter {
                display: block;
            }
        }

        @media print {
            .printbutton {
                display: none !important;
            }
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="98%" align="center">
    <tr>
        <td class="top_bg">
            <div class="divFooter">
                <img src="https://im4change.in/images/logo1.jpg" height="59" border="0"
                     alt="Resource centre on India's rural distress" style="padding-top:14px;"/>
            </div>

        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td id="topspace">&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr id="topspace">
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-bottom:1px solid #000; padding-top:10px;" class="printbutton">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td width="100%">
            <h1 class="news_headlines" style="font-style:normal">
                <strong>India shocks with vaccine patent -Latha Jishnu</strong></h1>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td width="100%" style="font-family:Arial, 'Segoe Script', 'Segoe UI', sans-serif, serif"><font size="3">
                <div align="justify">-Down to Earth<br /><br /><em>Why did we grant Pfizer's claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere?<br /></em><br />In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India&rsquo;s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer&rsquo;s claim on its vaccine against pneumonia, the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), marketed as Prevnar13. For a country that has stricter patentability criteria than most others, India&rsquo;s decision was baffling because Pfizer&rsquo;s patent has been rejected by the European Union (EU) and is being challenged elsewhere, too. The strongest opposition to PCV comes from the pharma industry because of the obviousness of the claims made by Pfizer which means Prevnar13 is neither novel nor inventive.<br /><br />In India too, the claim was challenged by pharma firm Panacea Biotech and global humanitarian organisation M&eacute;decins Sans Fronti&egrave;res (MSF). There are several reasons why the grant of patent here is rather curious. In 2014, rival drugmakers Merck and Novartis succeeded in getting the EU Patent Office to revoke Pfizer&rsquo;s patent by citing a lack of novelty and inventiveness in its method (Pfizer has challenged the revocation and a decision is awaited). In India, where the patentability criteria is far stricter than in the EU or any other country, how did the patent office think it fit to allow the Pfizer claim?<br /><br />The general speculation is that the National Democratic Alliance government has buckled under pressure from the US Administration at the prodding of its pharmaceutical lobby. Currently, the pressure is said to be intense on account of bilateral trade deals which are in the offing. Whatever the reason, the patent office decision has set a bad precedent.<br /><br />MSF&rsquo;s contention that the method Pfizer has patented is too obvious to deserve a patent is similar to Merck&rsquo;s argument made in 2012 that Pfizer&rsquo;s claim of an invention was just the addition of six serotypes to the firm&rsquo;s existing vaccine. Under Section 3d of India&rsquo;s Patent Act, this would automatically exclude Prevnar13 from getting a patent. It is also important to note that unlike in India, Merck and Novartis had to fight a post-grant case in the EU. Post-grant oppositions are harder to fight and take long to be decided.<br /><br />There is another significant concern in India. It is a question that lies at the intersection of the need to protect genuine innovation and drug affordability. Every year, a million children die globally from pneumococcal disease, which is the leading cause of preventable deaths. A fifth of these deaths occur in India where pneumonia kills more children under five than any other infectious disease. There was much cheering when in May, the Union Ministry of Health announced the inclusion of PCV in its Universal Immunisation Programme. The announcement was facilitated because of generous funding from global vaccine alliance, GAVI which is providing PCV at a subsidised rate of 500 per child for three years. PCV is an expensive vaccine&mdash;it retails for close to Rs 11,000 per course&mdash;and the question is how India can continue the programme in future. <br /><br />Please <a href="http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758" title="http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758">click here</a> to read more. </div><div align="justify">&nbsp;</div>               </font>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-top:1px solid #000; border-bottom:1px solid #000;padding-top:10px;">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>
</table></body>
</html>'

}
$reasonPhrase = 'OK'
header - [internal], line ??
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emitStatusLine() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emit() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 54
Cake\Http\Server::emit() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 141
[main] - ROOT/webroot/index.php, line 39

Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
Code Context
                    $value

                ), $first);

                $first = false;
$response = object(Cake\Http\Response) {

	'status' => (int) 200,
	'contentType' => 'text/html',
	'headers' => [
		'Content-Type' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		]
	],
	'file' => null,
	'fileRange' => [],
	'cookies' => object(Cake\Http\Cookie\CookieCollection) {},
	'cacheDirectives' => [],
	'body' => '<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
        "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <link rel="canonical" href="https://im4change.in/<pre class="cake-error"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ba15ef337-trace').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ba15ef337-trace').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none');"><b>Notice</b> (8)</a>: Undefined variable: urlPrefix [<b>APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp</b>, line <b>8</b>]<div id="cakeErr67f0ba15ef337-trace" class="cake-stack-trace" style="display: none;"><a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ba15ef337-code').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ba15ef337-code').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Code</a> <a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ba15ef337-context').style.display = (document.getElementById('cakeErr67f0ba15ef337-context').style.display == 'none' ? '' : 'none')">Context</a><pre id="cakeErr67f0ba15ef337-code" class="cake-code-dump" style="display: none;"><code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB"></span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">head</span><span style="color: #007700">&gt;
</span></span></code>
<span class="code-highlight"><code><span style="color: #000000">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&lt;link&nbsp;rel="canonical"&nbsp;href="<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">Configure</span><span style="color: #007700">::</span><span style="color: #0000BB">read</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'SITE_URL'</span><span style="color: #007700">);&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$urlPrefix</span><span style="color: #007700">;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">category</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">slug</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>/<span style="color: #0000BB">&lt;?php&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">echo&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$article_current</span><span style="color: #007700">-&gt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">seo_url</span><span style="color: #007700">;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">?&gt;</span>.html"/&gt;
</span></code></span>
<code><span style="color: #000000"><span style="color: #0000BB">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #007700">&lt;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">meta&nbsp;http</span><span style="color: #007700">-</span><span style="color: #0000BB">equiv</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Content-Type"&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #0000BB">content</span><span style="color: #007700">=</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"text/html;&nbsp;charset=utf-8"</span><span style="color: #007700">/&gt;
</span></span></code></pre><pre id="cakeErr67f0ba15ef337-context" class="cake-context" style="display: none;">$viewFile = &#039;/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp&#039;
$dataForView = [
	&#039;article_current&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 34883,
		&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;India shocks with vaccine patent -Latha Jishnu&#039;,
		&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
-Down to Earth&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Why did we grant Pfizer&#039;s claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India&amp;rsquo;s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s claim on its vaccine against pneumonia, the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), marketed as Prevnar13. For a country that has stricter patentability criteria than most others, India&amp;rsquo;s decision was baffling because Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s patent has been rejected by the European Union (EU) and is being challenged elsewhere, too. The strongest opposition to PCV comes from the pharma industry because of the obviousness of the claims made by Pfizer which means Prevnar13 is neither novel nor inventive.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In India too, the claim was challenged by pharma firm Panacea Biotech and global humanitarian organisation M&amp;eacute;decins Sans Fronti&amp;egrave;res (MSF). There are several reasons why the grant of patent here is rather curious. In 2014, rival drugmakers Merck and Novartis succeeded in getting the EU Patent Office to revoke Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s patent by citing a lack of novelty and inventiveness in its method (Pfizer has challenged the revocation and a decision is awaited). In India, where the patentability criteria is far stricter than in the EU or any other country, how did the patent office think it fit to allow the Pfizer claim?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The general speculation is that the National Democratic Alliance government has buckled under pressure from the US Administration at the prodding of its pharmaceutical lobby. Currently, the pressure is said to be intense on account of bilateral trade deals which are in the offing. Whatever the reason, the patent office decision has set a bad precedent.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
MSF&amp;rsquo;s contention that the method Pfizer has patented is too obvious to deserve a patent is similar to Merck&amp;rsquo;s argument made in 2012 that Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s claim of an invention was just the addition of six serotypes to the firm&amp;rsquo;s existing vaccine. Under Section 3d of India&amp;rsquo;s Patent Act, this would automatically exclude Prevnar13 from getting a patent. It is also important to note that unlike in India, Merck and Novartis had to fight a post-grant case in the EU. Post-grant oppositions are harder to fight and take long to be decided.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There is another significant concern in India. It is a question that lies at the intersection of the need to protect genuine innovation and drug affordability. Every year, a million children die globally from pneumococcal disease, which is the leading cause of preventable deaths. A fifth of these deaths occur in India where pneumonia kills more children under five than any other infectious disease. There was much cheering when in May, the Union Ministry of Health announced the inclusion of PCV in its Universal Immunisation Programme. The announcement was facilitated because of generous funding from global vaccine alliance, GAVI which is providing PCV at a subsidised rate of 500 per child for three years. PCV is an expensive vaccine&amp;mdash;it retails for close to Rs 11,000 per course&amp;mdash;and the question is how India can continue the programme in future. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. 
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
		&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;Down to Earth, 30 September, 2017, http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758&#039;,
		&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
		&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
		&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
		&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-latha-jishnu-4682989&#039;,
		&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
		&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
		&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 4682989,
		&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
		&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
		&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [[maximum depth reached]],
		&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;
	
	},
	&#039;articleid&#039; =&gt; (int) 34883,
	&#039;metaTitle&#039; =&gt; &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | India shocks with vaccine patent -Latha Jishnu&#039;,
	&#039;metaKeywords&#039; =&gt; &#039;Intellectual Property Rights,IPRs,Patented Medicines,patents,pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV),pfizer&#039;,
	&#039;metaDesc&#039; =&gt; &#039;
-Down to Earth

Why did we grant Pfizer&#039;s claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere?

In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India&amp;rsquo;s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s claim on its vaccine against...&#039;,
	&#039;disp&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-Down to Earth&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Why did we grant Pfizer&#039;s claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India&amp;rsquo;s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s claim on its vaccine against pneumonia, the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), marketed as Prevnar13. For a country that has stricter patentability criteria than most others, India&amp;rsquo;s decision was baffling because Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s patent has been rejected by the European Union (EU) and is being challenged elsewhere, too. The strongest opposition to PCV comes from the pharma industry because of the obviousness of the claims made by Pfizer which means Prevnar13 is neither novel nor inventive.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In India too, the claim was challenged by pharma firm Panacea Biotech and global humanitarian organisation M&amp;eacute;decins Sans Fronti&amp;egrave;res (MSF). There are several reasons why the grant of patent here is rather curious. In 2014, rival drugmakers Merck and Novartis succeeded in getting the EU Patent Office to revoke Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s patent by citing a lack of novelty and inventiveness in its method (Pfizer has challenged the revocation and a decision is awaited). In India, where the patentability criteria is far stricter than in the EU or any other country, how did the patent office think it fit to allow the Pfizer claim?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The general speculation is that the National Democratic Alliance government has buckled under pressure from the US Administration at the prodding of its pharmaceutical lobby. Currently, the pressure is said to be intense on account of bilateral trade deals which are in the offing. Whatever the reason, the patent office decision has set a bad precedent.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;MSF&amp;rsquo;s contention that the method Pfizer has patented is too obvious to deserve a patent is similar to Merck&amp;rsquo;s argument made in 2012 that Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s claim of an invention was just the addition of six serotypes to the firm&amp;rsquo;s existing vaccine. Under Section 3d of India&amp;rsquo;s Patent Act, this would automatically exclude Prevnar13 from getting a patent. It is also important to note that unlike in India, Merck and Novartis had to fight a post-grant case in the EU. Post-grant oppositions are harder to fight and take long to be decided.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There is another significant concern in India. It is a question that lies at the intersection of the need to protect genuine innovation and drug affordability. Every year, a million children die globally from pneumococcal disease, which is the leading cause of preventable deaths. A fifth of these deaths occur in India where pneumonia kills more children under five than any other infectious disease. There was much cheering when in May, the Union Ministry of Health announced the inclusion of PCV in its Universal Immunisation Programme. The announcement was facilitated because of generous funding from global vaccine alliance, GAVI which is providing PCV at a subsidised rate of 500 per child for three years. PCV is an expensive vaccine&amp;mdash;it retails for close to Rs 11,000 per course&amp;mdash;and the question is how India can continue the programme in future. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758&quot; title=&quot;http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;English&#039;,
	&#039;SITE_URL&#039; =&gt; &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;,
	&#039;site_title&#039; =&gt; &#039;im4change&#039;,
	&#039;adminprix&#039; =&gt; &#039;admin&#039;
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	&#039;id&#039; =&gt; (int) 34883,
	&#039;title&#039; =&gt; &#039;India shocks with vaccine patent -Latha Jishnu&#039;,
	&#039;subheading&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;description&#039; =&gt; &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
-Down to Earth&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Why did we grant Pfizer&#039;s claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India&amp;rsquo;s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s claim on its vaccine against pneumonia, the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), marketed as Prevnar13. For a country that has stricter patentability criteria than most others, India&amp;rsquo;s decision was baffling because Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s patent has been rejected by the European Union (EU) and is being challenged elsewhere, too. The strongest opposition to PCV comes from the pharma industry because of the obviousness of the claims made by Pfizer which means Prevnar13 is neither novel nor inventive.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In India too, the claim was challenged by pharma firm Panacea Biotech and global humanitarian organisation M&amp;eacute;decins Sans Fronti&amp;egrave;res (MSF). There are several reasons why the grant of patent here is rather curious. In 2014, rival drugmakers Merck and Novartis succeeded in getting the EU Patent Office to revoke Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s patent by citing a lack of novelty and inventiveness in its method (Pfizer has challenged the revocation and a decision is awaited). In India, where the patentability criteria is far stricter than in the EU or any other country, how did the patent office think it fit to allow the Pfizer claim?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The general speculation is that the National Democratic Alliance government has buckled under pressure from the US Administration at the prodding of its pharmaceutical lobby. Currently, the pressure is said to be intense on account of bilateral trade deals which are in the offing. Whatever the reason, the patent office decision has set a bad precedent.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
MSF&amp;rsquo;s contention that the method Pfizer has patented is too obvious to deserve a patent is similar to Merck&amp;rsquo;s argument made in 2012 that Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s claim of an invention was just the addition of six serotypes to the firm&amp;rsquo;s existing vaccine. Under Section 3d of India&amp;rsquo;s Patent Act, this would automatically exclude Prevnar13 from getting a patent. It is also important to note that unlike in India, Merck and Novartis had to fight a post-grant case in the EU. Post-grant oppositions are harder to fight and take long to be decided.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There is another significant concern in India. It is a question that lies at the intersection of the need to protect genuine innovation and drug affordability. Every year, a million children die globally from pneumococcal disease, which is the leading cause of preventable deaths. A fifth of these deaths occur in India where pneumonia kills more children under five than any other infectious disease. There was much cheering when in May, the Union Ministry of Health announced the inclusion of PCV in its Universal Immunisation Programme. The announcement was facilitated because of generous funding from global vaccine alliance, GAVI which is providing PCV at a subsidised rate of 500 per child for three years. PCV is an expensive vaccine&amp;mdash;it retails for close to Rs 11,000 per course&amp;mdash;and the question is how India can continue the programme in future. &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. 
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;
&amp;nbsp;
&lt;/div&gt;&#039;,
	&#039;credit_writer&#039; =&gt; &#039;Down to Earth, 30 September, 2017, http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758&#039;,
	&#039;article_img&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;article_img_thumb&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;status&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;show_on_home&#039; =&gt; (int) 1,
	&#039;lang&#039; =&gt; &#039;EN&#039;,
	&#039;category_id&#039; =&gt; (int) 16,
	&#039;tag_keyword&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;seo_url&#039; =&gt; &#039;india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-latha-jishnu-4682989&#039;,
	&#039;meta_title&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_keywords&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;meta_description&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;noindex&#039; =&gt; (int) 0,
	&#039;publish_date&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	&#039;most_visit_section_id&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;article_big_img&#039; =&gt; null,
	&#039;liveid&#039; =&gt; (int) 4682989,
	&#039;created&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;modified&#039; =&gt; object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	&#039;edate&#039; =&gt; &#039;&#039;,
	&#039;tags&#039; =&gt; [
		(int) 0 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 1 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 2 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 3 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 4 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 5 =&gt; object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	&#039;category&#039; =&gt; object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	&#039;[new]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[accessible]&#039; =&gt; [
		&#039;*&#039; =&gt; true,
		&#039;id&#039; =&gt; false
	],
	&#039;[dirty]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[original]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[virtual]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[hasErrors]&#039; =&gt; false,
	&#039;[errors]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[invalid]&#039; =&gt; [],
	&#039;[repository]&#039; =&gt; &#039;Articles&#039;

}
$articleid = (int) 34883
$metaTitle = &#039;LATEST NEWS UPDATES | India shocks with vaccine patent -Latha Jishnu&#039;
$metaKeywords = &#039;Intellectual Property Rights,IPRs,Patented Medicines,patents,pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV),pfizer&#039;
$metaDesc = &#039;
-Down to Earth

Why did we grant Pfizer&#039;s claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere?

In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India&amp;rsquo;s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s claim on its vaccine against...&#039;
$disp = &#039;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;-Down to Earth&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;Why did we grant Pfizer&#039;s claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India&amp;rsquo;s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s claim on its vaccine against pneumonia, the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), marketed as Prevnar13. For a country that has stricter patentability criteria than most others, India&amp;rsquo;s decision was baffling because Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s patent has been rejected by the European Union (EU) and is being challenged elsewhere, too. The strongest opposition to PCV comes from the pharma industry because of the obviousness of the claims made by Pfizer which means Prevnar13 is neither novel nor inventive.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In India too, the claim was challenged by pharma firm Panacea Biotech and global humanitarian organisation M&amp;eacute;decins Sans Fronti&amp;egrave;res (MSF). There are several reasons why the grant of patent here is rather curious. In 2014, rival drugmakers Merck and Novartis succeeded in getting the EU Patent Office to revoke Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s patent by citing a lack of novelty and inventiveness in its method (Pfizer has challenged the revocation and a decision is awaited). In India, where the patentability criteria is far stricter than in the EU or any other country, how did the patent office think it fit to allow the Pfizer claim?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The general speculation is that the National Democratic Alliance government has buckled under pressure from the US Administration at the prodding of its pharmaceutical lobby. Currently, the pressure is said to be intense on account of bilateral trade deals which are in the offing. Whatever the reason, the patent office decision has set a bad precedent.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;MSF&amp;rsquo;s contention that the method Pfizer has patented is too obvious to deserve a patent is similar to Merck&amp;rsquo;s argument made in 2012 that Pfizer&amp;rsquo;s claim of an invention was just the addition of six serotypes to the firm&amp;rsquo;s existing vaccine. Under Section 3d of India&amp;rsquo;s Patent Act, this would automatically exclude Prevnar13 from getting a patent. It is also important to note that unlike in India, Merck and Novartis had to fight a post-grant case in the EU. Post-grant oppositions are harder to fight and take long to be decided.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;There is another significant concern in India. It is a question that lies at the intersection of the need to protect genuine innovation and drug affordability. Every year, a million children die globally from pneumococcal disease, which is the leading cause of preventable deaths. A fifth of these deaths occur in India where pneumonia kills more children under five than any other infectious disease. There was much cheering when in May, the Union Ministry of Health announced the inclusion of PCV in its Universal Immunisation Programme. The announcement was facilitated because of generous funding from global vaccine alliance, GAVI which is providing PCV at a subsidised rate of 500 per child for three years. PCV is an expensive vaccine&amp;mdash;it retails for close to Rs 11,000 per course&amp;mdash;and the question is how India can continue the programme in future. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Please &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758&quot; title=&quot;http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758&quot;&gt;click here&lt;/a&gt; to read more. &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div align=&quot;justify&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;&#039;
$lang = &#039;English&#039;
$SITE_URL = &#039;https://im4change.in/&#039;
$site_title = &#039;im4change&#039;
$adminprix = &#039;admin&#039;</pre><pre class="stack-trace">include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51</pre></div></pre>latest-news-updates/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-latha-jishnu-4682989.html"/>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
    <link href="https://im4change.in/css/control.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
          media="all"/>
    <title>LATEST NEWS UPDATES | India shocks with vaccine patent -Latha Jishnu | Im4change.org</title>
    <meta name="description" content="
-Down to Earth

Why did we grant Pfizer's claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere?

In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India&rsquo;s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer&rsquo;s claim on its vaccine against..."/>
    <script src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-1.10.2.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://im4change.in/js/jquery-migrate.min.js"></script>
    <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">

        $(document).ready(function () {
            var img = $("img")[0]; // Get my img elem
            var pic_real_width, pic_real_height;
            $("<img/>") // Make in memory copy of image to avoid css issues
                .attr("src", $(img).attr("src"))
                .load(function () {
                    pic_real_width = this.width;   // Note: $(this).width() will not
                    pic_real_height = this.height; // work for in memory images.
                });
        });
    </script>
    <style type="text/css">
        @media screen {
            div.divFooter {
                display: block;
            }
        }

        @media print {
            .printbutton {
                display: none !important;
            }
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" width="98%" align="center">
    <tr>
        <td class="top_bg">
            <div class="divFooter">
                <img src="https://im4change.in/images/logo1.jpg" height="59" border="0"
                     alt="Resource centre on India's rural distress" style="padding-top:14px;"/>
            </div>

        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td id="topspace">&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr id="topspace">
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-bottom:1px solid #000; padding-top:10px;" class="printbutton">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td width="100%">
            <h1 class="news_headlines" style="font-style:normal">
                <strong>India shocks with vaccine patent -Latha Jishnu</strong></h1>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td width="100%" style="font-family:Arial, 'Segoe Script', 'Segoe UI', sans-serif, serif"><font size="3">
                <div align="justify">-Down to Earth<br /><br /><em>Why did we grant Pfizer's claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere?<br /></em><br />In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India&rsquo;s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer&rsquo;s claim on its vaccine against pneumonia, the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), marketed as Prevnar13. For a country that has stricter patentability criteria than most others, India&rsquo;s decision was baffling because Pfizer&rsquo;s patent has been rejected by the European Union (EU) and is being challenged elsewhere, too. The strongest opposition to PCV comes from the pharma industry because of the obviousness of the claims made by Pfizer which means Prevnar13 is neither novel nor inventive.<br /><br />In India too, the claim was challenged by pharma firm Panacea Biotech and global humanitarian organisation M&eacute;decins Sans Fronti&egrave;res (MSF). There are several reasons why the grant of patent here is rather curious. In 2014, rival drugmakers Merck and Novartis succeeded in getting the EU Patent Office to revoke Pfizer&rsquo;s patent by citing a lack of novelty and inventiveness in its method (Pfizer has challenged the revocation and a decision is awaited). In India, where the patentability criteria is far stricter than in the EU or any other country, how did the patent office think it fit to allow the Pfizer claim?<br /><br />The general speculation is that the National Democratic Alliance government has buckled under pressure from the US Administration at the prodding of its pharmaceutical lobby. Currently, the pressure is said to be intense on account of bilateral trade deals which are in the offing. Whatever the reason, the patent office decision has set a bad precedent.<br /><br />MSF&rsquo;s contention that the method Pfizer has patented is too obvious to deserve a patent is similar to Merck&rsquo;s argument made in 2012 that Pfizer&rsquo;s claim of an invention was just the addition of six serotypes to the firm&rsquo;s existing vaccine. Under Section 3d of India&rsquo;s Patent Act, this would automatically exclude Prevnar13 from getting a patent. It is also important to note that unlike in India, Merck and Novartis had to fight a post-grant case in the EU. Post-grant oppositions are harder to fight and take long to be decided.<br /><br />There is another significant concern in India. It is a question that lies at the intersection of the need to protect genuine innovation and drug affordability. Every year, a million children die globally from pneumococcal disease, which is the leading cause of preventable deaths. A fifth of these deaths occur in India where pneumonia kills more children under five than any other infectious disease. There was much cheering when in May, the Union Ministry of Health announced the inclusion of PCV in its Universal Immunisation Programme. The announcement was facilitated because of generous funding from global vaccine alliance, GAVI which is providing PCV at a subsidised rate of 500 per child for three years. PCV is an expensive vaccine&mdash;it retails for close to Rs 11,000 per course&mdash;and the question is how India can continue the programme in future. <br /><br />Please <a href="http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758" title="http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758">click here</a> to read more. </div><div align="justify">&nbsp;</div>               </font>
        </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td>&nbsp;</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td height="50" style="border-top:1px solid #000; border-bottom:1px solid #000;padding-top:10px;">
            <form><input type="button" value=" Print this page "
                         onclick="window.print();return false;"/></form>
        </td>
    </tr>
</table></body>
</html>'

}
$cookies = []
$values = [
	(int) 0 => 'text/html; charset=UTF-8'
]
$name = 'Content-Type'
$first = true
$value = 'text/html; charset=UTF-8'
header - [internal], line ??
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emitHeaders() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181
Cake\Http\ResponseEmitter::emit() - CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 55
Cake\Http\Server::emit() - CORE/src/Http/Server.php, line 141
[main] - ROOT/webroot/index.php, line 39

<head>

    <link rel="canonical" href="<?php echo Configure::read('SITE_URL'); ?><?php echo $urlPrefix;?><?php echo $article_current->category->slug; ?>/<?php echo $article_current->seo_url; ?>.html"/>

    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>

$viewFile = '/home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp'
$dataForView = [
	'article_current' => object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

		'id' => (int) 34883,
		'title' => 'India shocks with vaccine patent -Latha Jishnu',
		'subheading' => '',
		'description' => '<div align="justify">
-Down to Earth<br />
<br />
<em>Why did we grant Pfizer's claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere?<br />
</em><br />
In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India&rsquo;s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer&rsquo;s claim on its vaccine against pneumonia, the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), marketed as Prevnar13. For a country that has stricter patentability criteria than most others, India&rsquo;s decision was baffling because Pfizer&rsquo;s patent has been rejected by the European Union (EU) and is being challenged elsewhere, too. The strongest opposition to PCV comes from the pharma industry because of the obviousness of the claims made by Pfizer which means Prevnar13 is neither novel nor inventive.<br />
<br />
In India too, the claim was challenged by pharma firm Panacea Biotech and global humanitarian organisation M&eacute;decins Sans Fronti&egrave;res (MSF). There are several reasons why the grant of patent here is rather curious. In 2014, rival drugmakers Merck and Novartis succeeded in getting the EU Patent Office to revoke Pfizer&rsquo;s patent by citing a lack of novelty and inventiveness in its method (Pfizer has challenged the revocation and a decision is awaited). In India, where the patentability criteria is far stricter than in the EU or any other country, how did the patent office think it fit to allow the Pfizer claim?<br />
<br />
The general speculation is that the National Democratic Alliance government has buckled under pressure from the US Administration at the prodding of its pharmaceutical lobby. Currently, the pressure is said to be intense on account of bilateral trade deals which are in the offing. Whatever the reason, the patent office decision has set a bad precedent.<br />
<br />
MSF&rsquo;s contention that the method Pfizer has patented is too obvious to deserve a patent is similar to Merck&rsquo;s argument made in 2012 that Pfizer&rsquo;s claim of an invention was just the addition of six serotypes to the firm&rsquo;s existing vaccine. Under Section 3d of India&rsquo;s Patent Act, this would automatically exclude Prevnar13 from getting a patent. It is also important to note that unlike in India, Merck and Novartis had to fight a post-grant case in the EU. Post-grant oppositions are harder to fight and take long to be decided.<br />
<br />
There is another significant concern in India. It is a question that lies at the intersection of the need to protect genuine innovation and drug affordability. Every year, a million children die globally from pneumococcal disease, which is the leading cause of preventable deaths. A fifth of these deaths occur in India where pneumonia kills more children under five than any other infectious disease. There was much cheering when in May, the Union Ministry of Health announced the inclusion of PCV in its Universal Immunisation Programme. The announcement was facilitated because of generous funding from global vaccine alliance, GAVI which is providing PCV at a subsidised rate of 500 per child for three years. PCV is an expensive vaccine&mdash;it retails for close to Rs 11,000 per course&mdash;and the question is how India can continue the programme in future. <br />
<br />
Please <a href="http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758">click here</a> to read more. 
</div>
<div align="justify">
&nbsp;
</div>',
		'credit_writer' => 'Down to Earth, 30 September, 2017, http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758',
		'article_img' => '',
		'article_img_thumb' => '',
		'status' => (int) 1,
		'show_on_home' => (int) 1,
		'lang' => 'EN',
		'category_id' => (int) 16,
		'tag_keyword' => '',
		'seo_url' => 'india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-latha-jishnu-4682989',
		'meta_title' => null,
		'meta_keywords' => null,
		'meta_description' => null,
		'noindex' => (int) 0,
		'publish_date' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
		'most_visit_section_id' => null,
		'article_big_img' => null,
		'liveid' => (int) 4682989,
		'created' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		'modified' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
		'edate' => '',
		'tags' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		'category' => object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
		'[new]' => false,
		'[accessible]' => [
			[maximum depth reached]
		],
		'[dirty]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[original]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[virtual]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[hasErrors]' => false,
		'[errors]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[invalid]' => [[maximum depth reached]],
		'[repository]' => 'Articles'
	
	},
	'articleid' => (int) 34883,
	'metaTitle' => 'LATEST NEWS UPDATES | India shocks with vaccine patent -Latha Jishnu',
	'metaKeywords' => 'Intellectual Property Rights,IPRs,Patented Medicines,patents,pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV),pfizer',
	'metaDesc' => '
-Down to Earth

Why did we grant Pfizer's claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere?

In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India&rsquo;s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer&rsquo;s claim on its vaccine against...',
	'disp' => '<div align="justify">-Down to Earth<br /><br /><em>Why did we grant Pfizer's claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere?<br /></em><br />In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India&rsquo;s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer&rsquo;s claim on its vaccine against pneumonia, the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), marketed as Prevnar13. For a country that has stricter patentability criteria than most others, India&rsquo;s decision was baffling because Pfizer&rsquo;s patent has been rejected by the European Union (EU) and is being challenged elsewhere, too. The strongest opposition to PCV comes from the pharma industry because of the obviousness of the claims made by Pfizer which means Prevnar13 is neither novel nor inventive.<br /><br />In India too, the claim was challenged by pharma firm Panacea Biotech and global humanitarian organisation M&eacute;decins Sans Fronti&egrave;res (MSF). There are several reasons why the grant of patent here is rather curious. In 2014, rival drugmakers Merck and Novartis succeeded in getting the EU Patent Office to revoke Pfizer&rsquo;s patent by citing a lack of novelty and inventiveness in its method (Pfizer has challenged the revocation and a decision is awaited). In India, where the patentability criteria is far stricter than in the EU or any other country, how did the patent office think it fit to allow the Pfizer claim?<br /><br />The general speculation is that the National Democratic Alliance government has buckled under pressure from the US Administration at the prodding of its pharmaceutical lobby. Currently, the pressure is said to be intense on account of bilateral trade deals which are in the offing. Whatever the reason, the patent office decision has set a bad precedent.<br /><br />MSF&rsquo;s contention that the method Pfizer has patented is too obvious to deserve a patent is similar to Merck&rsquo;s argument made in 2012 that Pfizer&rsquo;s claim of an invention was just the addition of six serotypes to the firm&rsquo;s existing vaccine. Under Section 3d of India&rsquo;s Patent Act, this would automatically exclude Prevnar13 from getting a patent. It is also important to note that unlike in India, Merck and Novartis had to fight a post-grant case in the EU. Post-grant oppositions are harder to fight and take long to be decided.<br /><br />There is another significant concern in India. It is a question that lies at the intersection of the need to protect genuine innovation and drug affordability. Every year, a million children die globally from pneumococcal disease, which is the leading cause of preventable deaths. A fifth of these deaths occur in India where pneumonia kills more children under five than any other infectious disease. There was much cheering when in May, the Union Ministry of Health announced the inclusion of PCV in its Universal Immunisation Programme. The announcement was facilitated because of generous funding from global vaccine alliance, GAVI which is providing PCV at a subsidised rate of 500 per child for three years. PCV is an expensive vaccine&mdash;it retails for close to Rs 11,000 per course&mdash;and the question is how India can continue the programme in future. <br /><br />Please <a href="http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758" title="http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758">click here</a> to read more. </div><div align="justify">&nbsp;</div>',
	'lang' => 'English',
	'SITE_URL' => 'https://im4change.in/',
	'site_title' => 'im4change',
	'adminprix' => 'admin'
]
$article_current = object(App\Model\Entity\Article) {

	'id' => (int) 34883,
	'title' => 'India shocks with vaccine patent -Latha Jishnu',
	'subheading' => '',
	'description' => '<div align="justify">
-Down to Earth<br />
<br />
<em>Why did we grant Pfizer's claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere?<br />
</em><br />
In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India&rsquo;s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer&rsquo;s claim on its vaccine against pneumonia, the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), marketed as Prevnar13. For a country that has stricter patentability criteria than most others, India&rsquo;s decision was baffling because Pfizer&rsquo;s patent has been rejected by the European Union (EU) and is being challenged elsewhere, too. The strongest opposition to PCV comes from the pharma industry because of the obviousness of the claims made by Pfizer which means Prevnar13 is neither novel nor inventive.<br />
<br />
In India too, the claim was challenged by pharma firm Panacea Biotech and global humanitarian organisation M&eacute;decins Sans Fronti&egrave;res (MSF). There are several reasons why the grant of patent here is rather curious. In 2014, rival drugmakers Merck and Novartis succeeded in getting the EU Patent Office to revoke Pfizer&rsquo;s patent by citing a lack of novelty and inventiveness in its method (Pfizer has challenged the revocation and a decision is awaited). In India, where the patentability criteria is far stricter than in the EU or any other country, how did the patent office think it fit to allow the Pfizer claim?<br />
<br />
The general speculation is that the National Democratic Alliance government has buckled under pressure from the US Administration at the prodding of its pharmaceutical lobby. Currently, the pressure is said to be intense on account of bilateral trade deals which are in the offing. Whatever the reason, the patent office decision has set a bad precedent.<br />
<br />
MSF&rsquo;s contention that the method Pfizer has patented is too obvious to deserve a patent is similar to Merck&rsquo;s argument made in 2012 that Pfizer&rsquo;s claim of an invention was just the addition of six serotypes to the firm&rsquo;s existing vaccine. Under Section 3d of India&rsquo;s Patent Act, this would automatically exclude Prevnar13 from getting a patent. It is also important to note that unlike in India, Merck and Novartis had to fight a post-grant case in the EU. Post-grant oppositions are harder to fight and take long to be decided.<br />
<br />
There is another significant concern in India. It is a question that lies at the intersection of the need to protect genuine innovation and drug affordability. Every year, a million children die globally from pneumococcal disease, which is the leading cause of preventable deaths. A fifth of these deaths occur in India where pneumonia kills more children under five than any other infectious disease. There was much cheering when in May, the Union Ministry of Health announced the inclusion of PCV in its Universal Immunisation Programme. The announcement was facilitated because of generous funding from global vaccine alliance, GAVI which is providing PCV at a subsidised rate of 500 per child for three years. PCV is an expensive vaccine&mdash;it retails for close to Rs 11,000 per course&mdash;and the question is how India can continue the programme in future. <br />
<br />
Please <a href="http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758">click here</a> to read more. 
</div>
<div align="justify">
&nbsp;
</div>',
	'credit_writer' => 'Down to Earth, 30 September, 2017, http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758',
	'article_img' => '',
	'article_img_thumb' => '',
	'status' => (int) 1,
	'show_on_home' => (int) 1,
	'lang' => 'EN',
	'category_id' => (int) 16,
	'tag_keyword' => '',
	'seo_url' => 'india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-latha-jishnu-4682989',
	'meta_title' => null,
	'meta_keywords' => null,
	'meta_description' => null,
	'noindex' => (int) 0,
	'publish_date' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenDate) {},
	'most_visit_section_id' => null,
	'article_big_img' => null,
	'liveid' => (int) 4682989,
	'created' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	'modified' => object(Cake\I18n\FrozenTime) {},
	'edate' => '',
	'tags' => [
		(int) 0 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 1 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 2 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 3 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 4 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {},
		(int) 5 => object(Cake\ORM\Entity) {}
	],
	'category' => object(App\Model\Entity\Category) {},
	'[new]' => false,
	'[accessible]' => [
		'*' => true,
		'id' => false
	],
	'[dirty]' => [],
	'[original]' => [],
	'[virtual]' => [],
	'[hasErrors]' => false,
	'[errors]' => [],
	'[invalid]' => [],
	'[repository]' => 'Articles'

}
$articleid = (int) 34883
$metaTitle = 'LATEST NEWS UPDATES | India shocks with vaccine patent -Latha Jishnu'
$metaKeywords = 'Intellectual Property Rights,IPRs,Patented Medicines,patents,pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV),pfizer'
$metaDesc = '
-Down to Earth

Why did we grant Pfizer's claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere?

In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India&rsquo;s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer&rsquo;s claim on its vaccine against...'
$disp = '<div align="justify">-Down to Earth<br /><br /><em>Why did we grant Pfizer's claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere?<br /></em><br />In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India&rsquo;s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer&rsquo;s claim on its vaccine against pneumonia, the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), marketed as Prevnar13. For a country that has stricter patentability criteria than most others, India&rsquo;s decision was baffling because Pfizer&rsquo;s patent has been rejected by the European Union (EU) and is being challenged elsewhere, too. The strongest opposition to PCV comes from the pharma industry because of the obviousness of the claims made by Pfizer which means Prevnar13 is neither novel nor inventive.<br /><br />In India too, the claim was challenged by pharma firm Panacea Biotech and global humanitarian organisation M&eacute;decins Sans Fronti&egrave;res (MSF). There are several reasons why the grant of patent here is rather curious. In 2014, rival drugmakers Merck and Novartis succeeded in getting the EU Patent Office to revoke Pfizer&rsquo;s patent by citing a lack of novelty and inventiveness in its method (Pfizer has challenged the revocation and a decision is awaited). In India, where the patentability criteria is far stricter than in the EU or any other country, how did the patent office think it fit to allow the Pfizer claim?<br /><br />The general speculation is that the National Democratic Alliance government has buckled under pressure from the US Administration at the prodding of its pharmaceutical lobby. Currently, the pressure is said to be intense on account of bilateral trade deals which are in the offing. Whatever the reason, the patent office decision has set a bad precedent.<br /><br />MSF&rsquo;s contention that the method Pfizer has patented is too obvious to deserve a patent is similar to Merck&rsquo;s argument made in 2012 that Pfizer&rsquo;s claim of an invention was just the addition of six serotypes to the firm&rsquo;s existing vaccine. Under Section 3d of India&rsquo;s Patent Act, this would automatically exclude Prevnar13 from getting a patent. It is also important to note that unlike in India, Merck and Novartis had to fight a post-grant case in the EU. Post-grant oppositions are harder to fight and take long to be decided.<br /><br />There is another significant concern in India. It is a question that lies at the intersection of the need to protect genuine innovation and drug affordability. Every year, a million children die globally from pneumococcal disease, which is the leading cause of preventable deaths. A fifth of these deaths occur in India where pneumonia kills more children under five than any other infectious disease. There was much cheering when in May, the Union Ministry of Health announced the inclusion of PCV in its Universal Immunisation Programme. The announcement was facilitated because of generous funding from global vaccine alliance, GAVI which is providing PCV at a subsidised rate of 500 per child for three years. PCV is an expensive vaccine&mdash;it retails for close to Rs 11,000 per course&mdash;and the question is how India can continue the programme in future. <br /><br />Please <a href="http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758" title="http://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/india-shocks-with-vaccine-patent-58758">click here</a> to read more. </div><div align="justify">&nbsp;</div>'
$lang = 'English'
$SITE_URL = 'https://im4change.in/'
$site_title = 'im4change'
$adminprix = 'admin'

include - APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8
Cake\View\View::_evaluate() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1413
Cake\View\View::_render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 1374
Cake\View\View::renderLayout() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 927
Cake\View\View::render() - CORE/src/View/View.php, line 885
Cake\Controller\Controller::render() - CORE/src/Controller/Controller.php, line 791
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::_invoke() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 126
Cake\Http\ActionDispatcher::dispatch() - CORE/src/Http/ActionDispatcher.php, line 94
Cake\Http\BaseApplication::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/BaseApplication.php, line 235
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\RoutingMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/RoutingMiddleware.php, line 162
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Routing\Middleware\AssetMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Routing/Middleware/AssetMiddleware.php, line 88
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Error\Middleware\ErrorHandlerMiddleware::__invoke() - CORE/src/Error/Middleware/ErrorHandlerMiddleware.php, line 96
Cake\Http\Runner::__invoke() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 65
Cake\Http\Runner::run() - CORE/src/Http/Runner.php, line 51

India shocks with vaccine patent -Latha Jishnu

-Down to Earth Why did we grant Pfizer's claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere? In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India’s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer’s claim on its vaccine against pneumonia, the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), marketed as Prevnar13. For a country that has stricter patentability criteria than most others, India’s decision was baffling because Pfizer’s patent has been rejected by the European Union (EU) and is being challenged elsewhere, too. The strongest opposition to PCV comes from the pharma industry because of the obviousness of the claims made by Pfizer which means Prevnar13 is neither novel nor inventive. In India too, the claim was challenged by pharma firm Panacea Biotech and global humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). There are several reasons why the grant of patent here is rather curious. In 2014, rival drugmakers Merck and Novartis succeeded in getting the EU Patent Office to revoke Pfizer’s patent by citing a lack of novelty and inventiveness in its method (Pfizer has challenged the revocation and a decision is awaited). In India, where the patentability criteria is far stricter than in the EU or any other country, how did the patent office think it fit to allow the Pfizer claim? The general speculation is that the National Democratic Alliance government has buckled under pressure from the US Administration at the prodding of its pharmaceutical lobby. Currently, the pressure is said to be intense on account of bilateral trade deals which are in the offing. Whatever the reason, the patent office decision has set a bad precedent. MSF’s contention that the method Pfizer has patented is too obvious to deserve a patent is similar to Merck’s argument made in 2012 that Pfizer’s claim of an invention was just the addition of six serotypes to the firm’s existing vaccine. Under Section 3d of India’s Patent Act, this would automatically exclude Prevnar13 from getting a patent. It is also important to note that unlike in India, Merck and Novartis had to fight a post-grant case in the EU. Post-grant oppositions are harder to fight and take long to be decided. There is another significant concern in India. It is a question that lies at the intersection of the need to protect genuine innovation and drug affordability. Every year, a million children die globally from pneumococcal disease, which is the leading cause of preventable deaths. A fifth of these deaths occur in India where pneumonia kills more children under five than any other infectious disease. There was much cheering when in May, the Union Ministry of Health announced the inclusion of PCV in its Universal Immunisation Programme. The announcement was facilitated because of generous funding from global vaccine alliance, GAVI which is providing PCV at a subsidised rate of 500 per child for three years. PCV is an expensive vaccine—it retails for close to Rs 11,000 per course—and the question is how India can continue the programme in future. Please click here to read more.