Access to the affordable healthcare has to be a
fundamental right if the human civilization is about ‘being human first’. The
governments and the governance, be it the democracies or the autocracies, must
be duty-bound to work towards this fundamental right because it is ultimately
the people they get legitimacy from; they derive sanctity for their power from.
The Supreme Court of India’s decision to deny Novartis
patent on its anti-cancer drug Glivec might be a technical decision based on
patent legalities, but it is what needed to be practiced on a larger scale in
order to provide people across the continent with affordable healthcare.
Millions cannot be allowed to die because they cannot
afford the cost of the medicine when such medicines can be mass produced at
much cheaper rates. Intellectual property rights are a legitimate concern but
human lives cannot be held ransom to that. A dying human life is always an
emergency situation and all rules and regulations become null and void in
emergency situations.
The need to act becomes urgent in case of the
life-threatening disorders like cancer or HIV/AIDS. The very fact that cancer and
HIV/AIDS treatment and related scientific research to develop medicines are an
ongoing process and a costly affair involving billions of dollars make the
medicine (treatment availability) an exclusive domain of the big multinational
pharmaceutical companies who invest initially in the research and development but
recover the investment soon and reap huge and super-normal profits subsequently
under protection of patent laws.
The world over, it cannot be said why, the pharmaceutical
research is more or less handled by the private corporations, even in the richer
countries. Governments or the scientists working for the governments do come up
with the breakthroughs but they are mostly academic in nature. Here, the
governments can pitch in to adopt the scientific breakthroughs to produce
medicines at affordable rates in case of life threatening diseases or
situations. But that doesn’t happen because such scientific breakthrough generally
happen in rich countries like America, Japan, Canada or some of the European
nations, all rich enough to afford the costly patented medicines of the Big
Pharma. These capitalist economies treat the pharmaceutical sector as a private
domain and follow the open market policy of minimum intervention.
No problem in doing that. No doubt the Capitalist model of
development has effected many positive developments like bringing millions out
of poverty. China and India
But, mere taking out of the poverty doesn’t solve the
problem. Surviving on few dollars a day or Rs. 3000 a month cannot allow one to
go for a cancer or antiretroviral medicine that costs thousands of dollars or
over a Lakh rupee a month.
Countries or people of these countries cannot afford the
high cost of the patented medicines of the Big Pharma. A report said that the
patented Glivec is used by some 16,000 people in India
And it is a sad fact that millions are dying because of
such abnormally high cost of the medicines; millions residing not in America , Canada ,
Japan or the rich European
nations but in poor countries and regions like China ,
India , Asia, Africa and Latin America .
The one principal solution out of this labyrinth is taking
proactive steps at regional and national levels to enact legislations to allow
generic versions of patented medicines in case of life-threatening diseases and
situations like cancer and HIV/AIDS.
Maximum number of the cancer and HIV/AIDS affected come
from poor countries and regions. They depend on international funding to
provide medicines free of cost or at subsidized rates. A slowing world economy
is narrowing down the funding options to provide medicines free or at
subsidized rates. There are debates and threats to resize the targeted
population to cover. Generic versions of medicines is the only answer to this
problems as it can multiply the number of people to be covered extending the
life-saving medicines to millions more.
©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com/
