Access to Essential Medicines: Ten Stories That Mattered in 2011 5. Turning the Screws on Affordable Medicines Produced in India India’s role as the “pharmacy of the developing world” is once more under fire this year from both governments and multinational drug companies. Five years after the drug company Novartis first tried to get a critical part of India’s pro-health patent law thrown out, the company is back for the final round of its legal battle against the Indian government—this time in the Supreme Court. If Novartis is successful, India will be forced to grant far more patents on medicines than they currently do, blocking the production of more affordable versions of medicines patented elsewhere, and so keeping newer drugs out of reach of those who need them the most. Photo: Belgium 2010 © Bruno de Cock/MSF

Access to Essential Medicines: Ten Stories That Mattered in 2011

5. Turning the Screws on Affordable Medicines Produced in India

India’s role as the “pharmacy of the developing world” is once more under fire this year from both governments and multinational drug companies.

Five years after the drug company Novartis first tried to get a critical part of India’s pro-health patent law thrown out, the company is back for the final round of its legal battle against the Indian government—this time in the Supreme Court.

If Novartis is successful, India will be forced to grant far more patents on medicines than they currently do, blocking the production of more affordable versions of medicines patented elsewhere, and so keeping newer drugs out of reach of those who need them the most.

Photo: Belgium 2010 © Bruno de Cock/MSF

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    Access to Essential Medicines: Ten Stories That Mattered in 2011 5. Turning the Screws on Affordable Medicines Produced...
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    Big, bad pharma. Sometimes I think they’re worse than Wall Street because they’re fighting
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    why people really suck. and why they don’t have to.
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