Study says formulation for some critical ailments enormously priced.
Six years into the product patent regime, foreign multinational companies have monopoly over at least 33 medicines they import and market in India, a recent study by a Kolkata-based researcher says.
The study, ‘Multinationals and monopolies, pharmaceutical industry in India after TRIPS’, is part of the working paper series published from that city by the Indian Institute of Management, early this month.
Sudip Chaudhuri, the researcher, claims at least 10 of these medicines, mostly among the highest priced patented drugs, for which there are no generic alternatives, are for the treatment of cancer. There are cardiac, diabetic and neuro medicines also in the list. According to Chaudhuri, Roche’s Herceptin injection tops the list, with a maximum retail price tag of Rs 1,35,200 for a 50 ml injection. The report attributes the source of the price data to the sales audit data of market research firm AIOCD Pharmasofttech AWACS Pvt. Ltd (AIOCD-AWACS).
The study identifies 180 medicines as ‘new drugs’ marketed in India since 1995-2010, with 51 of these having the possibility of getting patent protection under the current patent regime. In other words, all other medicines, though new, have low-cost generic equivalents in the market, thereby making the market share of patentable new drugs very small.
Chaudhuri feels the miniscule percentage of market share does not mean they do not pose an accessibility issue in the country. “It would be incorrect to infer that patented drugs are not a problem in the country. For life-threatening diseases such as cancer, exorbitant prices are being charged for the newly patented drugs,” he said.
Among the 33 monopoly drugs, the per unit cost of five drugs were Rs 45,000 and above. Six drugs were in the range of Rs 10,000 to Rs 45,000; eight in the Rs 10,000 –1,000 range and another six between Rs 100 and Rs 1,000. Eight products, the report says, had a price tag below Rs 100.
Since the prices of monopoly drugs are for single injections or tablets, the cost of treatment per person per year could be much higher.
| BITTER PILL Ten highest priced drugs that enjoy monopoly in india | |||
| Brand | MNC | MRP (Rs) | Therapeutic category |
| Herceptin Inj 50 ml | Roche | 1,35,200 | Anti-cancer |
| Erbitux 700 Mg Inj 50 ml | Merck | 87920.00 | Anti-cancer |
| Ixempra 45 mg Inj 1 | BMS | 66430.00 | Anti-cancer |
| Macugen 0.3 mg Inj 90 ml | Pfizer | 45350.00 | Ophthal |
| Fasturtec 1.5 inj 1 vial | Sanofi-Aventis | 45000.00 | Cancer related |
| Remicade 100 mg Inj 1 | Fulford | 41039.00 | Pain / analgesics |
| Actemra 400 mg Inj 1 | Roche | 40545.00 | Anti-cancer |
| Orencia 250 mg Inj 1 | BMS | 31851.00 | Pain/analgesics |
| Zenapax 25 mg Inj 5 ml | Roche | 28,875 | Anti-cancer |
| Enbrel 50 mg Inj 1 | Wyeth | 15,761 | Pain/analgesics |
| Source: IIM Calcutta: working paper series No. 685 | |||
However, the report suggests that three-fourth of the post-1995 drugs (the drugs that can technically qualify for product patent protection) have at least five low-cost alternatives due to the flexibilities provided under the TRIPS Agreement of the World Trade Organisation. The first of such flexibilities had allowed generic companies to continue production of medicines that they had been making before 2005, even if patents were granted after 2005. The second flexibility enabled India to tighten its patent law by limiting patent protection to only new drugs and not mere modifications of existing drugs.
