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MNC durgmakers today hit back at their domestic counterparts over frivolous patent issue and said even the local firms are engaged in filing for intellectual rights for incremental innovations that merely improve the safety or efficacy of an already known drug.
The Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India, an industry body of multinational drugmakers, said there was a fundamental lack of understanding among domestic pharma companies that plan to oppose granting of patents in India for known drugs.
"There are examples wherein Indian pharmaceutical companies are applying for patents based on incremental innovations in third markets like the US and Europe," OPPI president Ranjit Shahani told PTI.
He was commenting on the recent move by the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA), an industry body of domestic drugmakers, to oppose all drug patent applications filed after October 2009.
IPA had said many of the patent claims made by multinationals do not necessarily enhance the efficacy of previously known drugs.
Rather, the MNCs were doing so only to extend the period of patent, commonly known as ever-greening, by tweaking the molecules a bit, terming them as frivolous.
Shahani, however, disagreed with the claims made by IPA.
"The statement demonstrates once again the fundamental lack of understanding about the role of patents and how new medicines are brought to patients around the world and in India," he said.
Many a times the second, third or later generation medicines are the ones that provide more appropriate therapeutic benefits with fewer side effects, he added.
OPPI, whose members include Novartis, Eli Lily, Merck, GSK and Pfizer among others, also said constant innovation is the only way to keep ahead of the ever-evolving diseases particularly complex diseases such as diabetes and cancer, as well as age-old scourges, like Malaria and TB, which change over time and make current medicines useless.
"Irrespective of whether based in India or any other part of the world, pharmaceutical companies whose primary interest is in meeting unmet medical needs understand that constant innovation is the only way to keep ahead of the ever-evolving diseases..." Shahani said.
IPA had accused multinational pharma companies of adopting evergreening tactic as new drug pipeline is drying up.
"Strategically, big pharma (companies) feel that the number of new chemical entities is dwindling and since most of the block busters are going out of the patent regime soon, they need to hang on to their existing patented drugs in all possible ways in order to maintain their dominant positions," IPA General Secretary D G Shah had said.