Cancer drug prices stay firmly high despite many not being patented

At a time when the government is thinking of ways to regulate the price of cancer medicines, a research paper by a patient group shows that despite many not-on-patent ones available, their prices remain at stratospheric levels.

The research, done by the Cancer Patients Aid Association (CPAA), a Mumbai-based patient group, intended to gauge the pricing, patent applications, usage and dosage of cancer medicines by interviewing doctors, chemists, and through data from publications such as Drugs Today, Current Index of Medical Specialties, etc.

“It is seen that despite the drugs not currently having patents, and with several players manufacturing them, they cost a bomb. If patents were to be granted, they would lead to a monopoly in the hands of the patents holder, eliminate competition, and further keep the medicines beyond the reach of the masses,” says YK Sapru, chairman and CEO, CPAA.

Patents that were actually meant to reward innovation can turn into monopolistic tools, giving them a licence to charge any amoung, said Amit Sengupta, general secretary of All India Peoples Science Network.

“All patents have a negative impact on affordablity and accessibility of medicines, whether they are granted for the processes to manufacture a drug or for the final product itself,” said Sengupta.

In India, there are over 2.5 million cancer patients, with approximately 800,000 new infections of various cancers detected annually, and 550,000 deaths per year as per various healthcare reports.

Sapru says to about 50% of the population who live a hand-to-mouth existence, and earn less than Rs100 per day, cancer treatment remains a distant dream.

Harmala Gupta, president of CanSupport, a cancer support group based in New Delhi, said treatment often gets stopped abruptly when the patient is unable to afford it.

“Even after begging, borrowing and selling assets, families are unable to afford treatment as prices touch the roof,” Gupta said.
What compounds the problem is the strategy used by drug companies of making multiple applications before various patent offices in India.

Experts said since the 2005 amended Patent Act, there has been a spurt in the number of patent applications in India with pharmaceutical industry estimates  predicting that about 15% of medicines would be patented products by 2015, when the domestic pharmaceutical market is expected to be worth $20 billion.

Figures show that in 2008-09, Indian drug companies had filed over 500 patent applications, wherein top filers included Ranbaxy Labs, Cadila Healthcare, Dr.Reddys Labs, says Anuradha Salhotra, managing partner, Lall Lahiri & Salhotra, a patent firm. “The trend is that Indian companies are fast becoming patent holders and this will continue in the future.”