Political campaigns must also throw up core issues relating to the social well-being of citizens. For instance, parties must discuss and debate the matter of drug patents, because it affects every Indian
Political parties, the intelligentsia and the media would do well now to concentrate on debating key developmental issues ahead of the polls rather than indulge in allegations and counter allegations and focus ad nauseam on the communalism vs secularism debate, which over the years has become irrelevant.
Though we are supposed to follow the Westminster style of parliamentary democracy, in essence, we have come to practise the presidential form of elections, what with the leading political parties declaring their candidates for the top job rather than awaiting the parliamentary party to elect its leader.
That being the case, one wonders why there cannot be a healthy debate on key issues and concerns such as foreign policy, internal security, education, health, environment et al among the key players.
In a country where only a miniscule minority have health insurance and over 70 per cent of population pay from their pocket to meet their healthcare expenses, which adds immensely to their family budget in a high inflation economy, availability of drugs at reasonable rates is a critical component of the health policy. Many families go bankrupt when confronted with diseases such as cancer and Behcet’s disease, where the costs of drugs are very high.
One of the key solutions to this is in making available to the public at large generic drugs. Generic drugs are sold at significantly lower prices than their branded equivalents. the reason being: Pharma companies incur fewer costs in producing them as they don’t have to bear the high costs of development and testing, as in branded drugs.
Though India is a leading manufacturer of generic drugs in the world, we continue to pay high cost for it as there is general apathy on the part of the Government to promote it due to vested interests or otherwise.
Of late, there have been some efforts in this direction. The Department of Pharmaceuticals has launched a campaign for opening of ‘Jan Aushadhi’ stores across the country with a view to making available unbranded quality generic medicines at affordable prices through public-private partnership, encourage doctors, more specifically in the Government hospital, to prescribe generic medicines and enable substantial savings in healthcare. Currently, there are 117 Jan Aushadhi stores across India, and the department plans to expand the number to 3,000 by 2016.
In Rajasthan, over 70 fair-price generic medicine shops are functional in medical college hospitals, district, sub-district and satellite hospitals by the name of ‘life line Drug Stores’ and are operated by Rajasthan Medicare Relief Societies. The Government of Rajasthan too is providing generic drugs through 15,000 free drug distribution centres, right from medical college hospital to primary health centre and sub-centres. About 400 types of commonly used essential generic drugs, surgical and sutures are given free of cost in Government hospitals in Rajasthan.
However, unnerved by such moves, the global pharmaceutical majors are inflicting patent litigation on generic drug makers with a view to keep their bottomlines strong.
When the Supreme Court denied a patent application for Glivec (also known as Gleevec), a treatment for leukemia, made by Novartis, it sparked off a debate across the world. While a New York Times editorial hailed the verdict saying it “could help poor patients get drugs at prices they can afford while preserving an incentive for true innovation”, a Forbes columnist slammed it observing thus, “If anything, recent Indian policies are sending a signal that intellectual property is tenuous...”
The Patents Act of 1970 was a watershed law designed to encourage the domestic development and production of low-cost generic medicines. Over the decades, it helped the country to become the “pharmacy of the developing world,” with generic manufacturers competing for markets and driving down prices of medicines elsewhere.
For example, Thailand has imported from India millions of doses of a generic version of the blood-thinning drug Plavix (used to prevent heart attacks), at a cost of three US cents per dose, while many an African country is fighting the HIV menace thanks to the low cost of Indian generic drugs. In fact, over 80 per cent of antiretrovirals used by donor-funded HIV treatment programmes globally between 2003 and 2008 was sourced from generic manufacturers in India.
In 1995, India joined the World Trade Organisation and started granting pharmaceutical patents within a decade. However, in 2005, it adopted a strict drug patent law that did not allow patent on new forms of existing medicines but at the same time it ensured patent protection for new pharmaceutical compounds.
If the Americans can debate outsourcing to India as a key electoral issue, Indian politicians too should openly debate issues such as that of drug patents, which directly affects millions of people across the nation.
(The author is Senior Fellow and Editor with the Vivekananda International Foundation)