Breaking the patent

Last week, India issued its first “compulsory licence”. The licence allowed the mid-sized domestic pharmaceutical firm Natco to manufacture and sell a generic version of a patent-protected cancer medicine from Germany-based Bayer at a price that is 97 per cent lower than that of the innovator’s brand. Following the March 9 order from the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks, Natco’s version of the liver and renal cancer drug sorafenib tosylate will now be available for Rs 8,880 to Indian patients, as an alternative to Bayer’s brand Nexavar, which costs Rs 2,84,428 (both for a month’s treatment).

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