Roche slashes Valcyte price by 35%

Swiss drug major Roche has slashed the price of its patented drug Valcyte, which has practically no competition, by 35% in the country.

The move, the drugmaker said, is in keeping with the interests of the patients in mind and improving the affordability of the medicine, and has nothing to do with the customs duty reduction announced in the Union Budget.

Valcyte (generic name valganciclovir) was granted a patent in India in June 2007 by Chennai Patent Office, preventing the marketing of low-lost generic versions.

Now with this price reduction, the maximum retail price of 60 valcyte tablets has fallen from Rs 62,400 to Rs 40,560 (MRP of each valcyte tablet is Rs 1,040).

However, Roche says that valcyte is mostly sold directly through distributors at the billing price which is Rs 40,000 for 60 tablets.

And with the reduction, the price has fallen to Rs 26,000 for 60 tablets or Rs 433 per tablet. However, the price is still higher than Rs 245 a tablet, at which first generic version of valganciclovir by Cipla sells.

Healthcare experts believe that discounts for patented drugs cannot equal generic competition in lowering prices.

Though Roche says that valcyte is sold at the billing price, which is less than the MRP, patient bodies claim that they directly source the drug from the retail chemist.

“The price of valcyte is simply unaffordable. We buy it from the chemists and the MRP is Rs 1,040 per tablet. The price of the first generic (by Cipla) is Rs 245 per tablet. But with more generics coming into fray, the prices will fall further,” says Loon Gangte, president, Delhi Network of Positive People, an organisation representing the needs of people living with HIV/AIDS, which filed a post grant opposition to the valcyte patent. Valganciclovir is in the eye of the long-standing patent dispute in the country.

Experts say that with more generics entering the scene, the prices could fall further.
But with the patent, generic competition is not possible, says Gangte.

Valganciclovir is used in treatment for cytomegalovirus retinitis, an infection that people living with HIV are susceptible to, and can lead to blindness if left untreated.

If access to valganciclovir is not possible, treatment is substituted with painful injections of a drug called ganciclovir directly into the affected eye, a twice-daily treatment requiring stay in the hospitals.

Says Leena Menghaney, campaign co-ordinator, at Medecins Sans Frontieres, “We have seen how increased generic competition lowers prices. In HIV/AIDS treatment, the 2001 discounted price of $10,439 for a year’s treatment per patient has dropped to $61 per patient per year as a result of increased generic production.”