Novartis stops donation of cancer drug to India

Friday, 06 June 2003, 19:30 IST
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WASHINGTON: Pharmaceutical major Novartis has abandoned donation of its cancer drug Glivec to needy people in India, apparently in retaliation for the clearance of generic versions of the drug by Indian authorities. Novartis began its donations of Glivec to India with a warning that it would halt the programme if the Indian government let local companies eat into its profits by selling generic versions of the drug, The New York Times reported Thursday. The donation of the drug was stopped on May 1, with Novartis saying it would leave it to Indian companies to meet the needs of the indigent. Hundreds of Indian cancer patients got Glivec free, and commercial sales soared as well. Glivec, a capsule that combats certain types of leukaemia and stomach tumours, costs an average of $27,000 a year in the U.S. In January, Natco Pharmaceutical, a Hyderabad-based generic drug maker, began selling generic Glivec under the name Veenat. A month's supply costs $377, versus $2,769 for Glivec. The report quoted Arun Bal, a medical ethicist in Mumbai, as saying that "the glorified term 'patient assistance programme' is nothing but a marketing strategy." It, however, noted that beneficiaries cared little about the company's motives. The family of Vasamvada Shukla, a 52-year-old woman in Mumbai, had almost bankrupted itself trying to pay for Glivec, selling land it had owned for generations for the $2,769 monthly cost of the drug. Then Shukla was accepted for the free programme. "We went to the temple to pray and give thanks," said her daughter Prachi. Rakesh Nagpal, a 41-year-old father of twins in New Delhi who makes $4,800 a year, said he too was getting the drug without having first taken interferon. It noted the market for Glivec seemed promising. Profits at Novartis's Indian unit in the quarter ended September 30 were 48 percent higher than a year earlier, thanks in large part, the company said, to Glivec sales. But those results are unlikely to be replicated, said the report. Mente Subba Rao, a Natco spokesman, said the months-long process of winning Indian government approval for Veenat, while swift by American standards, seemed unusually long and tedious. "We are guessing that Novartis attempted to pressure the drug controller," he said, referring to India's top drug regulator. That suspicion was echoed in an interview with Yusuf K. Hamied, chairman of a Natco competitor, Cipla, which is planning its own generic version of Glivec. Natco has established a giveaway program for Veenat in conjunction with the Cancer Patients Aid Association. Chowdary V. Nannapaneni, Natco's chairman, said the company had agreed in principle to give three-month supplies of Veenat to 200 patients screened by the foundation. Natco, Nannapaneni said, did not want poor patients to suffer on its account. "We are not as big as Novartis," he said, "but we are eager to help needy Indian patients in the best way we can".
Source: IANS
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