Health
Bargaining Through Compulsory Licensing: ARV Treatment in Brazil
The first study of its kind in Brazil on national drug spending illustrates how the threat of compulsory licensing can be an excellent bargaining tool to reducing patented drug costs.
WSJ to the WHO: In Defense of Patents
The Wall Street Journal defends patents, but disingenuously confuses the problems of high drug costs and poor delivery. Yet, the two issues are independent and require different approaches.
How Health Aid Undermines Health Systems
The FT is carrying a full page analysis on the impact that “vertically integrated” healthcare aid programs, such as for HIV/AIDS, have on public health systems in the developing world.
There are some startling statistics on just how much is being pumped into these fashionable diseases - HIV, malaria, and into vaccine research. For instance, in […]
Tropical Virus Moves North as Europe Warms
BBC News reports that a “debilitating tropical virus carried by mosquitoes” is manifesting itself in the norther Italian town of Ravenna. The extent of the disease, is minor - only 160 cases thus far, and 1 death. The disease is known as chikungunya, is relatively rare, and usually found in the tropics. However, it seems to have […]
Continuing Troubles with the Indian Patent Act: Is Novartis On Drugs?
The Hindu has an exceptional article on the recent Novartis case in India, titled “Do Indian Patent Laws Stifle Research?” that reveals the true story behind Novartis’ failure to secure a patent for its cancer drug, Gleevec. As it turns out, Novartis took a gamble by applying for the patent not in 1993 - when […]
Novartis Moves Out: India Drug Market to Grow to $20 billion
More drama from Novartis in India.
First, Novartis’ objection to the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IAPB) on the appointment of Mr. Chandrasekaran has been rejected. This is a further setback to its legal challenge to the Glivec patent decision (covered here).
Second, CNNMoney, amongst others, is reporting that Novartis has decided to move “hundreds of millions of […]
Income Inequality in Asia Growing
The ADB has just released a report titled “Key Indicators 2007: Inequality in Asia” (covered in IHT and BBC). The report concludes that the gini index, a measure of relative inequality had grown in all 15 countries studied, since the 1990s. More alarmingly, absolute inequality had grown even more. The bank identified the trend as […]
Indian Court Rejects Novartis’ Legal Challenge
The Chennai High Court has just announced its decision on the case brought by Novartis against the Indian Patent Act. The Court rejected Novartis’ challenge saying that it has no jurisdiction on the matter.
The news has received near blanket coverage (covered in IHT, Forbes, as well as SciDev, MSF). Interestingly, Novartis has suggested it will […]
