Sir — By rejecting the claim of Swiss pharma giant Novartis AG for patent and, by extension, huge profits for its branded blood cancer-busting drug, Glivec, the Supreme Court has underlined the importance of patients’ rights. It is obvious that most people in India don’t have enough money to meet the cost of life-saving drugs. Many are too poor to afford even generic drugs. Hence, state intervention is required to make life-saving drugs affordable to the patients even at the risk of being charged ‘protectionist’ and prolong their lives.
Rapacious MNCs in the pharmaceuticals business price the life-saving drugs far more steeply than the manufacturing costs, unmindful of the moral imperative to keep the profit margin as low as possible in the health sector. This should change, because human lives are far more important than profiteering by big firms.