Ahmedabad

Drug pricing in India has been a contentious issue, as more than 70% of people live on less than $2 a day and health insurance is inadequate. India contribute roughly 1% of its total gross domestic product to healthcare, which is arguably among the lowest levels of funding in the world. Besides, India’s drug pricing regulator has struggled in the past year to implement price caps and expand them to cover more drugs. When it fixed prices of about 100 medicines citing public interest last year, the industry fired back with lawsuit.[1] This is unacceptable.

We strongly suggest Mr. Narendra Modi, the PM of India, to consider the following points with a view to providing access to life saving medicines not only to Indians but to all the poor people across the globe who cannot buy medicines:

  1. Using Compulsory Licenses (CLs). IPAB confirmed that the Indian government is able to use all means legally at its disposal to check the abuse of patents and open up access to affordable versions of patented medicines.

  2. Implementing Strict Patentability Criteria. This step will help discouraging undeserving secondary and follow-on patents. Patents should only be granted for innovation that have accomplished something significant in terms of therapeutic effects.

  3. Pushing access AND innovation. The government should ensure that the fruits of innovation are accessible and affordable; and the link between the cost of R&D and the price of products should be broken, as the pharma companies spend much more on marketing than for R&D. [2]

  4. Increasing contribution towards the domestic healthcare sector. The Indian government should start spending more and more of its GDP towards the healthcare sector, that is the foremost step that needs to be taken if access to healthcare and medicines are to be increased among the rural Indian people.

[1] Siddiqui, Z. (2016). India adds more cancer, HIV/AIDS drugs to essential medicines list. [online] Reuters. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/article/india-medicine-pricecontrol-idUSKBN0U70W720151224 [Accessed 1 Apr. 2016, April 28, 2019].

[2] Malpani, R. (2013). India's Access to Medicines Policies Under Attack. [online] MSF USA. Available at: https://www.msfindia.in/indias-access-medicines-policies-under-attack [Accessed 1 Apr. 2016, April 28, 2019].