I saw this on Yahoo! News reporting on a story in The Indian Express. It's the latest news in the discussion within India regarding whether or not to apply pricing controls and/or compulsory license fees for patented medicines. You can see previous posts here, here and here for background.
In an open letter to the Indian Prime Minister, representatives from various NGOs said that they don't want the goverment to capitulate to PhRMAs planned lobbying effort. They fear that Pharma MNCs will substantially take over the India pharma industry and begin to price local consumers out of the market, and/or switch emphasis to Western international markets. In the last four years, there have been six major acquisitions of Indian drug companies. MNCs now own 3 of the top 10 Indian drug companies.
PhRMA is in India according to the NGOs to lobby against price controls and compulsory licensing provisions. The NGOs believe there is a need in India to use the compulsory licensing provisions of the Indian Patents Acts to secure access to patented drugs at affordable pricing for the large proportion of poor in India.
Posted by Bruce Lehr November 5th 2010.
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