This refers to the editorial "Enter compulsory licensing" (March 6). On the basis of historical and international evidence, a recent article in The Atlantic suggested that weak patent systems spur innovation, while strong patent systems retard innovation. The old, established corporations want to keep new players out of their markets and thus, lobby to extend the life of their patents. In another article in the reputed medical journal, The New England Journal of Medicine, it was found "that during the past 40 years, 153 new Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs, vaccines, or new indications for existing drugs were discovered through research carried out in public sector research institutes". More than half of these drugs have been used in the treatment or prevention of cancer. If anything, research has flourished under the initiative of public sector or university research initiatives. Hence, your comment that "compulsory licensing will weaken patent regime and endanger pharmaceutical research" is debatable. Besides, the newer cancer drugs are very expensive. Recently, New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center decided to not use a new $11,000-a-month drug for colon cancer because of its high cost, and the well-known company immediately responded by offering the drug at a 50 percent discount. Medical professionals and policy makers are debating over the relative health benefits and the depletion of life-savings of patients and their families. The decision of patent authorities to make treatments affordable is, therefore, the right step. China - which is the third-largest pharmaceutical market after the US and Japan - is planning to cut drug prices by an average 40 percent. India should also think on similar lines.
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H N Ramakrishna, Bangalore
Letters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:
The Editor, Business Standard
Nehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg
New Delhi 110 002
Fax: (011) 23720201 · E-mail: letters@bsmail.in
All letters must have a postal address and telephone number