July 16, 2012 Clippings

US wants India to increase cancer drug prices

Even as President Barack Obama is plugging his signature law to lower health care costs at home, his administration is pressurising India and other countries to impose higher prices even for lifesaver cancer drugs. Obama administration’s multiple “strategies to affect drug pricing abroad by using American international political muscle”, according to a Huffington Post investigative report, became apparent in a testimony by US Patent and Trademark Office deputy director Teresa Stanek Rea two weeks ago.  At the hearing largely ignored by the American media, Rea said she planned to deploy the pressure it has used against India in other countries, too. “This is front and centre,” Rea said. 

Rea’s 70-minute testimony focused on the Indian government’s efforts earlier this year to create an affordable generic alternative to a Bayer AG patented expensive cancer drug called Nexavar. 

Repeatedly castigated India’s government for approving the generic drug, calling the move an “egregious” violation of World Trade Organization treaties, the Post said. India’s decision, Rea was quoted as saying, “dismayed and surprised” her, and she boasted about “personally” engaging “various agencies of the Indian government” in efforts to overturn it.

Thus far the Indian government has resisted American pressure and continues to offer the generic alternative, which was approved in March after several months of negotiations with Bayer, the Post noted. Not once during her testimony did Rea — or any member of the Congress — cite the price Bayer posted in India for its version of the drug, the newspaper said.  Bayer, which earned $3.4 billion last year, was charging over $5,000 a month for standard doses, according to Indian government data cited by the Post. The cost of a generic version: $157 a month.

The Post noted that it was the high price that Bayer demanded for its cancer medication that prompted the Indian government to authorise Natco Pharma to begin selling the generic version and ordered the firm to pay Bayer a 6 percent royalty on the proceeds.  Rea’s testimony is only the most explicit example of the Obama administration’s efforts to use intellectual property manoeuvring to inflate medical costs abroad, the newspaper said. Over the last year, it said, various US agencies joined in disrupting World Health Assembly talks over reducing research and development costs for medicines targeting developing nations, and shut down World Intellectual Property Organization negotiations aimed at curtailing the prices of existing drugs in poor countries.

Source: http://health.india.com

16.07.2012

High Court asks MCI to grant additional seats toTelangana colleges

The Telengana states may get 50 additional MBBS seats. The Andra Pradesh High Court had directed the Medical council of India to add 50 medical seats in three colleges, under Osmania University and Kakatiya University. The court asked MCI to take a decision on granting additional seats in two days. It also asked medical colleges to address the issues, which led to the MCI rejecting their applications for additional seats. The high court order came on a petition by the twin universities, challenging the MCI’s decision to not grant additional MBBS seats to their medical colleges for the academic year 2012-13.

The varsities told the court that the MCI refused to sanction the additional seats to them but granted additional quota to the Andhra University Medical College and the Kurnool Medical College. The MCI cited factors like untidy toilets, malfunctioning lifts and inadequate out-patient wards for not granting more seats to Osmania Medical College in Hyderabad, Gandhi Medical College in Secunderabad and Kakatiya Medical College in Warangal. This sparked a row with the political parties in Telangana accusing the Congress government of neglecting the region. The state government has denied the charge but has written to the central government, seeking its intervention in the matter.

According to Medical Education Minister Kondru Murali, 600 seats were added to undergraduate medical courses this academic year, taking the total number in the state to 5,600, the highest in any state in the country. He said MCI rejected some of the applications on technical grounds.  The minister pointed out that the government and private medical colleges in Telangana have 2,350 seats. There are 2,300 seats in coastal Andhra region and 950 in Rayalaseema.

Source: http://health.india.com

16.07.2012

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