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85% of the World's HIV/AIDS Antiretroviral Drugs Made in India

I can sense that people don't get to understand how R&D works and why MNPs charge so much for their patents/products. I will not go into details but can propose a solution to the problem here.

R&D takes place either in the Universities or R&D facilities established by MNP. The funding for research either comes from public sector (i.e. tax payer's money) of from private (mostly from MNP) or both. The researcher and the parent institution and the funder hold the stakes and decide whether to file a patent or not. Research resulting from private funding (even if partially) almost always get patented because the investment is not made out of good heart by the MNP's but to reap benefit if and when a product makes it to the market (only 1 of 10,000 lead compounds*). The investment in terms of dollars and work hour (at-least 10 years) is huge, somewhere between $1.5 - 1.8 billion**. It does not stop here as cost continues to mount when a drug that has passed phase III clinical trials enters into manufacturing and marketing and hopefully not taken off the market due to adverse side effects previously not observed in clinical trials.

I totally understand that drugs must be affordable but businessmen and investors do not think like that, they look for the return of their investment. The only 'legal' way of bringing the costs down is:

a. funding drug development by the government through tax payer's money (so tax payers be prepared to chip in little more) and/or

b. buying the rights off the shelf by the government and/or

c. subsidizing the cost.

Ripping off stake holders from their rights to set the price is both illegal and unethical.

*Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development
**How to improve R&D productivity: the pharmaceutical industry's grand challenge. How to improve R&D productivity: the pharmaceutical industry's grand challenge : Article : Nature Reviews Drug Discovery

@Slav Defence
 
I can sense that people don't get to understand how R&D works and why MNPs charge so much for their patents/products. I will not go into details but can propose a solution to the problem here.

R&D takes place either in the Universities or R&D facilities established by MNP. The funding for research either comes from public sector (i.e. tax payer's money) of from private (mostly from MNP) or both. The researcher and the parent institution and the funder hold the stakes and decide whether to file a patent or not. Research resulting from private funding (even if partially) almost always get patented because the investment is not made out of good heart by the MNP's but to reap benefit if and when a product makes it to the market (only 1 of 10,000 lead compounds*). The investment in terms of dollars and work hour (at-least 10 years) is huge, somewhere between $1.5 - 1.8 billion**. It does not stop here as cost continues to mount when a drug that has passed phase III clinical trials enters into manufacturing and marketing and hopefully not taken off the market due to adverse side effects previously not observed in clinical trials.

I totally understand that drugs must be affordable but businessmen and investors do not think like that, they look for the return of their investment. The only 'legal' way of bringing the costs down is:

a. funding drug development by the government through tax payer's money (so tax payers be prepared to chip in little more) and/or

b. buying the rights off the shelf by the government and/or

c. subsidizing the cost.

Ripping off stake holders from their rights to set the price is both illegal and unethical.

*Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development
**How to improve R&D productivity: the pharmaceutical industry's grand challenge. How to improve R&D productivity: the pharmaceutical industry's grand challenge : Article : Nature Reviews Drug Discovery

@Slav Defence
And when the patents are about to expire and you come out with a new formulation claiming that this is an improvement and we need a renewal of our patent, while there is just a minor change (Evergreening), how is that not unethical? It is definitely illegal in India as shown by the Supreme court's decisions.
 
Instead of stealing other's years of research & development efforts, India (or any country for that matter) should develop her very own medicines and then sell them for reasonable price or for free as she deems fit.

Charity made on stolen money is not charity, it is only charity when made on one's own money. I don't think it should be very difficult to understand by educated people.

So I take it you hold same stance on Chinese patent infringement or Industrial espionage?
 
The concept of patents, copy right protection, and their renewal is of-course beyond understanding for those who have never got themselves involved into serious R&D rather relying on stealing other's years of hard work and investment.

Again, you want to do charity, do it using your own money and not of others. Ancient texts are claimed to be full of remedies and cures for all worldly and heavenly diseases; dig those out, manufacture elixirs and potions and start distributing for free, not only in India but rest of the world. I believe all of us will be thankful to India for her humanitarian assistance.

But until then, please do not question the authority and right of patent holders on what they should do with their life long effort and hard work.
Forget India...how many drugs invented and manufactured in Pakistan?
 
And some people will not buy or allow it in there region saying its Made in India. :(
India is leading generic drug manufacturer and have been reason for many to get some of the most economical drugs globally.

Glad to see our companies are able to bring smile on someones face.
Glad that Pakistan is not one of those Countries.
U can easily find indian medicines in Pakistani market.
 
Modi should ban exports of Indian pharmaceuticals to pakistan.
Pakistanis are already attempting that

Prime minister urged to ban import of medicines - Pakistan - DAWN.COM

ISLAMABAD: The government should impose a ban on the import of medicines and ask multinational pharmaceutical companies (MPCs) to start manufacturing drugs in the country.

This will not only reduce the import bill of medicines but will also help Pakistan start exporting medicines.

These were the main points of a letter sent to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif by the Young Pharmacists Association.

The letter stated that in the 1960s the total value of MPCs in Pakistan was $2.8 billion which has now decreased to just 40 million dollars.

The prime minister was informed that 61,256 factories were manufacturing medicines in India.

The Indian pharmaceutical industry is not only providing quality medicines in the local market but is also exporting drugs worth $25 billion every year by manufacturing 4,282 brands.

The US is importing more medicines from India than the entire Europe. India only allows MPCs to do business by manufacturing not only formulations but also pharmaceutical ingredients.

Moreover, five per cent revenue of the multinationals are spent on research and development.

The pharmaceutical firms also run welfare, free food, clean drinking water and community education projects in India, the letter added.

It said that Bangladesh was exporting 36 global brands and never granted retail price to MPCs more than its national companies.

About 94 per cent of market share is with the national companies and MPCs are doing only six per cent business.

The multinationals have to manufacture active pharmaceutical ingredients within the country.

But the situation is totally different in Pakistan where MPCs have never established any factory approved by the food and drug administration of US.

After the ‘60s, they never invested in Pakistan rather sold their factories and took their investment out of Pakistan.

The MPCs also stopped production of active pharmaceutical ingredients i.e. raw materials in Pakistan in the ‘90s.

Today the total value of MPC factories is Rs4 billion, which is equal to about $40 million.

MPCs managed to devise such policies that blocked competition in the pharmaceutical industry in Pakistan.

It is nearly impossible for a skilled professional to set up a pharmaceutical factory in Pakistan, added the letter.

Dr Nabeela Latif, the secretary coordination Young Pharmacists Association, said the pharmaceutical industry in Pakistan was not manufacturing a single global brand.

“MPCs never built any hospital, college or university in Pakistan. They hardly participated in any community welfare project. They have never spent a single penny on research and development.

“They are just selling medicines on very high prices. This is the reason medicines are being smuggled in from Iran and India,” she said.

Dr Nabeela said India, China and Bangladesh had made friendly laws for local pharmaceutical industry.

“We have appealed to the prime minister to amend the laws and rules in such a way that young pharmacists may start their own factories,” she said.
 
Glad that Pakistan is not one of those Countries.
U can easily find indian medicines in Pakistani market.
Finally a sane Pakistani comment.

Hopefully Indian Drugs can be sold legally and more SA lives can be saved.

Indian medicines find way into Pakistan | News | Pharmaceutical Journal

Many manufacturing facilities in India have low production costs

High drug prices have allowed medicines smuggled from India to capture Pakistan’s pharmaceutical market. Although Pakistan has 25,000 licensed medicines, the markets are replete with Indian medicines, which are selling like hot cakes.

Huge profits can be made, especially in rural areas, by selling all sorts of preparations smuggled from India and antibiotics, analgesics, sedatives, tranquilisers, hormones, antihypertensives and contraceptives are making their way across the border on such a scale that multinational corporations (MNCs) and local manufacturers are finding it hard to compete — 40 MNCs and 300 national companies supply medicines in Pakistan.

The pricing of medicines in Pakistan is lightly regulated. “The Ministry of Health allows the multinational drug manufacturing firms to raise the prices of their products every now and then,” Mohammad Riaz, president of the Pakistan Pharmaceutical Association (PPA), told The Pharmaceutical Journal. Furthermore, in the past decade, prices have increased by about 200 per cent. MNC products are at least 10 times costlier than the ones smuggled from India, said Ghulam Sarwar Khan Mohmand, managing director of a pharmaceutical factory in Peshawar. According to one survey, a strip of 10 Zantac tablets costs Rs90 (Pakistani rupees) compared with Rs14 for the Indian version. Similarly legitimate ciprofloxacin is available for Rs520 whereas the smuggled version costs just Rs21. Diclofenac sodium is on sale for Rs50 but its Indian version costs Rs3 only. And the list goes on.

Drugs are cheap in India because of a 1970 law that allowed Indian manufacturers to get around international patents and grow rapidly. By the time India acceded to World Trade Organization (WTO) patent rules, last year, the country had built up the largest number of US Food and Drug Administration approved manufacturing facilities outside the US and these benefit from unbeatably low production costs. In addition, the Indian Government provides subsidies for some drugs in an effort to keep prices low.

A blind eye

In Pakistan, a country where the gross national income per capita is just US$520 and medical facilities are limited, patients’ inability to purchase expensive drugs manufactured by the MNCs, compel them to buy the Indian alternatives, despite the bad blood between the two countries (three wars have been fought over Azad Jammu and Kashmir). Ikramullah Khan, a 40-year-old shopkeeper from Peshawar, whose mother is a cancer patient, says he buys smuggled drugs for injections from India because they cost only a fraction of locally made preparations.

Smuggling is particularly rife in the lawless rural parts of the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) that share borders with Afghanistan, which imports millions of dollars worth of drugs from India. These are then smuggled to border areas in Pakistan from where they make their way across the country. Many pharmacies in this region deal only in smuggled drugs from India. Some of the products on pharmacy shelves do not have information leaflets or details, such as expiry dates, but according to officials at the Federal Quality Control Board in Islamabad, most drugs smuggled in from India are safe for human use. In addition, studies have shown that smuggled anti-cancer drugs were as effective as those of the MNCs. There are even doctors who have been prescribing Indian medicines. For example, Peshawar-based doctor Gul Jamal claims to use an Indian brand for chronic stomach problems, finding it “quite effective”.

Although smuggling medicines in Pakistan is a crime punishable by a maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment, according to a drug analyst at the Federal Quality Control Board, some authorities are reluctant to stop the illicit trade because that could mean denying the poor access to affordable drugs. Some regulatory authorities simply look the other way, whereas others receive hefty bribes from the perpetrators.

Under such conditions, pharmacists often recommend Indian medicines over legitimate ones.

Shortages and safety

Pakistan’s expensive legitimate pharmaceutical market is further marred by frequent drug shortages. A recent survey conducted by the Network for Consumer Protection (a non-governmental organisation that, among other things, works to discourage irrational use of drugs in Pakistan) showed that 47 out 478 essential drugs (including antimalarials, antibiotics and immunosuppressants) were either unavailable or in short supply. Of these, 26 had been unavailable for at least six months. There have also been claims that some shortages are created in order to keep prices high.

Anti-retroviral drugs for HIV/AIDS are in particularly short supply and Pakistani manufacturers do not make them. About six months ago, the World Health Organization started importing these drugs to Pakistan from India under special arrangements. They are prescribed to patients in five treatment centres in the major cities by specially trained doctors. To deal with concerns that the anti-retrovirals might get into the wrong hands or find their way on to the open market, the WHO has put stringent measures in place. Distribution is strictly monitored and patients are not allowed to take their medicines home. However, “there is no guarantee that [anti-retrovirals] would not be smuggled from India,” Quaid Saeed. The WHO’s professional medical officer for HIV/AIDS in Pakistan, said.

Trade barriers and agreements

A national study of 439 drugs from 37 therapeutic classes manufactured by 41 companies found that policies restricting trade from India have a direct impact on prices of pharmaceutical products in Pakistan because the country is bound to purchase expensive medicines made by MNCs. In addition, “Pakistan-based MNCs are importing raw materials from their mother countries, which causes increase in prices”, said Ghulam Sarwar Mohmand, former president of the Frontier Chamber of Commerce and Industries. The issue of Indian drugs being sold in Pakistan is not a new one. It has been debated several times in the National Assembly of Pakistan but with no tangible outcome.

About 10 years ago, under WTO guidelines, India granted Pakistan “most favoured nation” status. This means that Pakistan is granted all trade advantages (eg, low tariffs) that other countries receive. Members of the WTO accord this status to each other. Pakistan, however, did not reciprocate. More recently, the South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) came into effect. This aims to reduce tariffs for intraregional trade and both India and Pakistan were among the seven countries to ratify the agreement. Notwithstanding this ratification, Pakistan has still not accorded India most favoured nation status but some remain hopeful that trade will open up. “When SAFTA and WTO rules are fully implemented and there are no trade barriers there will be a sharp reduction in the smuggling of medicines from India to Pakistan,” said a local pharmacist. In addition, according to Ayyaz Kiani, executive co-ordinator at the Network for Consumer Protection, although Pakistan has not granted most favoured nation status to India the trade tariffs that it applies on imports from India are much lower than those it applies to sectors bound under the WTO. “These tariffs would apply to any additions made in Pakistan’s positive list [items which can be imported] for India under SAFTA,” he said. It has been suggested, however, that once SAFTA is implemented and there are more Indian medicines on the market, it may be more difficult to keep the sale of smuggled Indian medicines in check.

For their part, Indian pharmaceutical companies are keen to gain a toehold in Pakistan’s pharmaceutical market, which is estimated to be worth US$140m. Currently, MNCs control 60 per cent of the market with the rest going to about 100 drug importers and the 300 licensed manufacturers.

According to the Indian Drug Manufacturers Association, Pakistan imports drugs in bulk from all over the world, except India, which is a leader in exporting bulk drugs. Working through the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) Indian pharmaceutical companies have been putting pressure on the Indian foreign ministry to get Pakistan’s trade barriers against India removed, at least in the drug sector. “We have been holding a series of discussions with officials on specific sectoral trade relaxation,” Amita Sarkar, a director at FICCI, said.

There may be hope in the composite dialogue process through which Pakistan-India ties have been steadily improving over the past two years. Bilateral trade between Pakistan and India now exceeds US$800m against $334m in 2004. However, contraband trade is believed worth more than twice that figure.

Another alternative is circular trade. This is carried out through third-party countries (such as Dubai and Singapore, and now Afghanistan), which import goods then re-export them to Pakistan. A number of Indian products, such as truck tyres are indirectly, but legally, imported into Pakistan in this way, but this is costly. “Keeping in view the competitive pharmaceutical market, low prices for medicines in India and rising pharmaceutical demand in Pakistan, exporters from India and importers in Pakistan cannot gain maximum profit from legal trade, mainly due to tariffs and hindrances in trade facilitation,” said Mr Kiani. For now, “Smuggling remains the best option to avoid tariffs, standards and documentation issues,” he said.
 
Instead of stealing other's years of research & development efforts, India (or any country for that matter) should develop her very own medicines and then sell them for reasonable price or for free as she deems fit.

Charity made on stolen money is not charity, it is only charity when made on one's own money. I don't think it should be very difficult to understand by educated people.

We are slowly moving there and R&D budgets of Indian pharma companies is growing.

By the way...I have a question....are you afraid of Indians? Why cannot you directly counter the posts by Indians instead of indirect posting your responses in dark. At least, until now, I haven't associated 'cowardliness' with Pakistan.
 
Good things/acts deserve to be admired.
If i have 100 patients of HIV and need to import medicens for them. Surely i will go for "less cost medicens" to get " more medicens" .
Its business.
A doctor or pharmacist (I presume) unable to correctly spell 'Medicine'!

Since when Doctors/pharmacists started to import medicines for the patients?

@WebMaster Can you please check this member's IP address?
 
A doctor or pharmacist (I presume) unable to correctly spell 'Medicine'!

Since when Doctors/pharmacists started to import medicines for the patients?

@WebMaster Can you please check this member's IP address?

Which part of his post does he claim to be a doctor or pharmacist?

He mentioned "If i have 100 patients" i.e hypothetical scenario

Just because a Pakistani doesn't approve of your views, you suspect his nationality?

Seems like paranoia is getting the best of you or you have little confidence in your own countrymen
 
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