"Flexibility" Not Welcomed By Western Pharmaceutical Corporations

In 2000, the international aid organization Doctors Without Borders launched small HIV/AIDS treatment projects in Thailand, South Africa and Cameroon. At the time, the cost of treating one person with anti-retroviral drugs was about $10,000 a year, posing a significant challenge for humanitarian groups fighting HIV/AIDS in developing countries.
Then, in 2001, the price of HIV/AIDS treatments suddenly dropped by 96 percent, as generic drug manufacturers in India began competing in the anti-retroviral drug market. At the time, India's patent law excluded patents for live-saving drugs, ensuring that market competition would keep the prices down for Indian consumers.
The cost of anti-retroviral drugs has continued to drop, and the annual cost of treating one person is currently about $140, according to Doctors Without Borders. Research has shown that treating HIV patients early can significantly reduce transmission rates, and now the group provides HIV/AIDS treatment in 24 developing countries.

"These generics have been a game changer in terms of being able to provide medical care in developing countries," said Judit Ruis, the US policy advisor for Doctors Without Borders' Access Campaign.

India has since updated its patent laws to meet international standards set by the World Trade Organization (WTO), but took advantage of flexibilities within the WTO framework to protect its domestic generic drug industry and keep drug prices low for its people, many of whom continue to live in poverty even as India emerges as a major world economy.
But big drug manufacturers in the United States and Europe are not happy with these flexibilities. A Truthout investigation has revealed that an aggressive lobbying effort by pharmaceutical interests pushed Congress and the White House to put mounting pressure on India to change its patent laws, despite India's current role as the "pharmacy of the developing world."

[Information here re patents, patent laws, pharmaceutical companies and lobbying efforts, - all of which point to enormous conflict between those seeking maximum profit and those hoping to deliver improved healthcare around the world.]

Modi has also made it clear that he sees both sides of the issue. During his recent US visit, the CEOs of Merck and other drug companies pressed Modi on India's patent laws during a breakfast meeting with US businesses leaders.
"I understand that you want to be compensated for your investments in [research and development]," Modi was quoted as saying in India's Economic Times. "At the same time, India needs medicines that are affordable for its population."
He apparently stressed that the issue was not just about India, but the entire developing world.

Doctors Without Borders said it would continue to monitor the patent situation in India and demand that its government resist pressure from the United States and the pharmaceutical industry. The group also publishes a database of information on challenging patents in countries across the world to help people and governments fight to remove barriers to affordable medicine.

taken from here