Thirty-one-year-old Ashwani Aggarwal followed the legal developments on Novartis blood-cancer drug Glivec, not because he is a medical professional turned pharmaceutical consultant.
Last year, his 62-year-old father was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia, a common cancer of white blood cells, effectively treated with Glivec.
Though the family wanted Glivec for the father’s treatment, it was beyond their reach, recalls Aggarwal, adding that treatment started with a locally-made, generically similar version of Glivec.
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court dismissed Novartis’ plea for patent protection on Glivec, since it was not an inventive product. The ruling allowed local drug makers to continue making their inexpensive versions of imatinib mesylate, sold by Novartis under the brand name Glivec.
Besides Natco and Cipla, key respondents in the Glivec case, a handful of companies sell generic versions of imatinib in the country — including Ranbaxy, Sun Pharma, Glenmark, Dr Reddy’s and Intas, to name a few, say industry representatives. Estimates are not available on the market for the drug, as it is sold largely to hospitals. But industry representatives peg the market at about Rs 100 crore, with Natco being the market leader.
The drugs are priced at about the Rs 10,000 a month range, though discounts given to hospitals and stockists could save the patient another Rs 2,000 or more on the final price, say industry representatives. About three lakh patients reportedly use generic versions of the drug.
Patients need to take a 400 mg tablet a day, says Kumar Prabhash, a practicing medical oncologist at Mumbai’s Tata Memorial Hospital for cancer. Glivec is priced at about Rs 1 lakh a month.
“Magic bullet”
Aggarwal has trawled through clinical trial details on Glivec and is convinced it is a “magic bullet”, allowing CML patients to lead a normal life. His father, for instance, continues to lead a regular professional life.
Happy with the apex court judgement, Aggarwal says, it allows more competition, and more competition will force Novartis to bring down the price of Glivec.
“There are few magic bullets in medicine, and this is one of them,” agrees Prabhash, of Glivec, an oral targeted therapy. The judgement is good, since the product has been in the market for about eight years at least, he says. But there is concern of what happens to research, and how the scientific community can be encouraged to do research, to bring out medicines at patient-friendly prices, he says.
Aggarwal points out, just because it is a magic bullet, it does not give a company the right to hold it from patients.