Geneva - Shareholders of Swiss pharmaceutical company
Novartis were urged Monday to force the company to drop its lawsuit
against the Indian government over patent rights.
Novartis went to court in February after India refused Novartis a
patent for a new version of the popular leukaemia drug Glivec.
The drugs company says it has been granted a licence in 40 other
countries and is challenging Indian patent laws claiming they breach
international standards for intellectual property rights.
The medical humanitarian organization Medecins sans Frontieres,
MSF, claims if Novartis wins, millions of people would lose access to
cheaper, generic drugs from India.
'We rely heavily on cheaper medicines from India. It is a major
concern to us that Novartis' action will jeopardise access to
affordable medicine in the poorest countries where we work,' said Dr
Unni Karunakara, of MSF.
MSF called on Novartis shareholders, who are due to attend their
annual meeting in Basel Tuesday, to put pressure on the firm to halt
legal proceedings as the trial over patent law draws to an end at
Chennai High Court in India.
Novartis, the world's third largest pharmaceutical company, which
has provided the drug free to 99 per cent of users in India, says
generics would still be available despite the court ruling and the
trial was about patent law.
Thomas Wellauer, Head of Corporate Services for Novartis said when
the case opened, 'Only if patents are respected can research-based
organizations continue making long-term, risky investments in new
medicines for patient.'
MSF buys a quarter of all its medicines, particularly for the
treatment of HIV/AIDS, from India which it calls 'the pharmacy of the
developing world.'
It claims more than 350,000 people have joined its campaign
against Novartis including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the German
development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, and the writer John
le Carré as well as patients' groups and NGOs.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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