Novartis, the Swiss pharmaceuticals group, yesterday faced angry protests over its decision to press on with a legal challenge to Indian patent law that health activists claim threatens to create a “medical apartheid” by restricting poor countries’ access to cheap drugs.

Campaigners distributing leaflets at the company’s annual meeting in Basle urged shareholders to force Daniel Vasella, the chief executive, to drop two lawsuits they say jeopardise India’s position as “the pharmacy of the developing world”.

Novartis is appealing against India’s rejection of a patent application for Glivec, its best-selling cancer drug, and is separately demanding India loosen its law preventing the granting of a new patent for an existing drug unless changes have made it significantly more effective.

Novartis insists “incremental innovations” should be patentable and claims India is breaching its international trade obligations. Closing arguments in the keenly watched case were due to be heard in a Madras court yesterday but proceedings were adjourned until March 26 after the judge fell ill. A final ruling is expected a month later.

Critics fear that the changes Novartis is seeking to Indian patent law would make it more difficult for poor people to source cheaper drugs.

“Novartis are threatening their own future profits as well as access to medicines, putting at risk their reputation in key emerging markets and undermining public acceptance of the intellectual property regime on which pharmaceutical profits depend,” Alex van der Velden from FairPensions, the British campaign for responsible investment, said.

India is one of the biggest manufacturers of generic medicines — legal cheaper copies of branded drugs with lapsed patents. Médecins sans Frontiãres (MSF), the French humanitarian agency, said more than 80 per cent of its Aids drugs and a quarter of all its medicines are made in India.

“At a time where more and more health authorities rely upon affordable generic medicines, it is simply unthinkable to let the action of one company threaten one of the main global suppliers,” Dr Christophe Fournier, MSF international council president, said.

More than 350,000 people, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, John le Carré, the author, and Stephen Lewis, former UN special envoy on Aids in Africa, have raised concerns. Novartis defended its action, arguing the motivation was less about profits than the principle of intellectual property. Fielding questions from investors concerned about the damaging fallout from the controversy, Dr Vasella said: “We don’t want popularity awards, we want to serve our patients and remain competitive.”

Glivec is Novartis’s second-best selling drug with sales of $2.6 billion (£1.35 billion) last year. It is patented in 36 countries including China.

However, Novartis has argued that 99 per cent of patients in India receive the drug for free.

“Our actions in India do not hinder the supply of medicines to poor countries given the international safeguards now in place,” the company said.

“The decision to acknowledge innovation by granting a patent is unrelated to the access to medicines issue. Only with effective patent laws can we continue to bring therapeutic improvements to patients that ultimately result in better patient care.”

Novartis officials have said that even generic versions of Glivec are beyond the reach of most Indians, costing nearly five times the average annual income, while the booming middle class is well able to afford branded drugs.

“Even our critics recognise that generic versions of Glivec are not the solution for the poor in India,” one said.

Medicine chest

— 15 Novartis’s new drug product approvals in US since 2000, the most of any company

— 5th Place in worldwide table of vaccine makers by size

— 140 Projects in the pipeline

Source: Novartis

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