-PTI German pharma major Bayer has charged that Indian generic drugmaker Cipla had breached its patent rights by slashing the price of a generic version of its patent-protected cancer drug Nexavar last week. Bayer Pharma has not given its consent to Cipla to launch its generic Sorafenib (sold under the brand name Nexavar) and the company’s decision to cut the price of the life-extending kidney and liver cancer drug “is a clear...

The debate about essential-medicine pricing and access in India illustrates the difficulties inherent in establishing policies that serve conflicting public interests in achieving goals such as caring well and ensuring safety for all, while also pursuing financially-sustainable success in scientific innovation and trade. It highlights problems facing those interested in continuing drug and vaccines development and ensuring that, once marketed, such products contribute effectively to improving public health. Modern pharmaceuticals...

Fighting cancer has just become less expensive for millions of Indian patients. More than 12 years after he electrified the pharma industry by taking on powerful global giants in his quest to supply cheap anti-AIDS drugs, Cipla promoter YK Hamied is back donning the role of a price warrior. This time, his attention is on anti-cancer drugs. On Thursday, Cipla cut prices of key cancer drugs by nearly 75%, an astounding,...

India joins global drug discovery league The launch by Ranbaxy last week of Synriam, a new drug to treat malaria, is an important milestone. Having made its name by manufacturing generic (off patent) drugs cheaply, India’s pharmaceutical industry has struggled to achieve original drug discovery since the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations signalled the onset of product patents in India. It began to be realised, in time, that there was...

PROFESSOR Shamnad Basheer joined the National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS), Kolkata, in November 2008 as the first Ministry of Human Resource Development Chaired Professor in Intellectual Property Law. Before this, he was Frank H. Marks Visiting Associate Professor of Intellectual Property Law at the George Washington University law school and a research associate at the Oxford Intellectual Property Research Centre (OIPRC).  He is the founder of several initiatives, including...