Novartis Indian challenge may harm drug access

A challenge by Swiss drugmaker Novartis to India?s patent law could have serious implications for future access to essential medicinces worldwide, aid agency Médecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said yesterday.

Novartis is challenging a part of an Indian law which protects patients from the patenting of minor improvements in known molecules, MSF said.

The company is also challenging a January decision to reject its patent application in India for its cancer drug Glivec ? known in the United States as Gleevec ? which was turned down on the grounds that it was for a new form of a known substance.

Both cases will be heard in the Chennai High Court on Tuesday. ?If Novartis? challenge against the Indian patent law is successful, a key safeguard that can protect the production of affordable medicines will be lost,? said Ellen ?t Hoen of MSF?s essential medicines campaign.

?People the world over who rely on India as a source of their medicines may be affected if Novartis gets its way,? ?t Hoen said in a statement. India is a crucial source of generic medicines and MSF says 84 percent of the AIDS drugs it uses to treat patients in more than 30 countries are sourced in India.

Novartis says that it is concerned about India?s failure to fully implement World Trade Organisation rules on intellectual property and that it could undermine growth of the country?s life science industry, reducing access to life-saving drugs.

India began reviewing pharmaceutical patent applications in 2005, when it was required to fully comply with WTO rules.

The Swiss company also says generics are not the answer for the majority of patients in India, who still cannot afford them.

More than 6,000 patients in India receive Novartis?s Glivec free of charge, amounting to 99 percent of the drug in the country, the company

Ryanair offers to build Dublin Terminal 2

European low-cost airline Ryanair said yesterday it had offered to build a second terminal at Dublin Airport for 250 million euros ($319 million).

The carrier said in a statement the proposal was a cheaper alternative to the Dublin Airport Authority?s (DAA) planned Terminal 2 which it said would cost 750 million euros ? up from the 170 to 200 million euros the DAA had initially estimated a year ago.

Ryanair said it would oppose at county council planning level the proposed terminal which it described as ?badly designed, in the wrong location? and ?five times more expensive than other similar terminal facilities in the UK and Europe?.

It also said it would oppose any attempt by the DAA to impose a mooted 25 to 60 percent increase in passenger charges.

In a bid to catch up with a surge in traffic since Ireland?s economic boom in the late 1990s, the airport authority has embarked on a 10-year drive to raise capacity to more than 30 million passengers a year from the present 20 million.