Is Compulsory licensing provision enough to take care of rising medical
need in India?
In today’s
scenario more and more public is becoming prey to life threatening diseases
such as cancer, HIV etc. Lot of research and study is going on to find out the exact
cause of this prevalent situation. The reason may range from change in
lifestyle to increased contamination of food and drink that we consume on daily
basis. Whatever is the reason Government of India should try to take some
measure to contribute to society and help public to overcome with this health
crisis. Unfortunately we have three segments of public living in our society that
is rich, middle-class public and poor. When this rare and life threatening
disease strike the rich people, then they may be able to deal with it with much
fewer hassle as they can afford expensive medicines and treatment, but have we
ever thought how middle-class and poor public deal with this life threatening
and devastating situation? It also includes those public who cannot afford
three time meals a day.
In this
regard, government has brought a provision called Compulsory licensing to make
sure that patented product specifically pharmaceutical products are available
to large population in developing and under developed countries at a cheaper
and affordable price. Section 84 of
Indian Patent Act pertains to the grant of Compulsory Licenses which states
that:
(1) At any
time after the expiration of three years from the date of the grant of a
patent, any person interested may make an application to the Controller for
grant of Compulsory license on patent on any of the following grounds, namely:—
(a) that the reasonable requirements of the public with respect to the
patented invention have not been satisfied, or
(b) that the patented invention is not available to the public at a
reasonably affordable price, or
(c) that the
patented invention is not worked in the territory of India.
Recently in a
Landmark case, first compulsory License was granted to an Indian Company Natco
for a cancer drug (Sorafenib tosylate) based on the fact that the drug was not
available to the public at a reasonably affordable price. Using the Compulsory
License Indian companies can manufacture the same branded drugs (that holds
patent) in less cost and it is known as generic drugs. As the generic drugs are
manufactured by avoiding the Research and development cost, so it is cheaply
available in market. The cost of generic drugs is almost 4 times less than that
of same branded drug.
But do you all feel Compulsory licensing is enough to take care of the
health care crisis that is faced by poor public and public living below poverty
line?.
The answer is
no, as you all will be amazed to know that there are still many public who are
not aware about generic drugs. What makes the whole scenario worse is that
there are many doctors and medical practitioners who doubt the quality of the
generic drugs, hence they do not prescribe these generic drugs to patients.
Government should take substantive initiative to advertise and promote usage of
generic drugs, so that it can reach more and more number of people.
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