Pharma companies and National Subsidies

[Guest guest]

Various players are ready to quickly criticise or praise both pharmaceutical

companies and government depending on the relative stance of both the critic and

the target. The following comment is not aimed at any

specifc company, nor intended to praise or criticise the Indian government.

I noticed that a recent price offer has been made by a major Indian

pharamceutical, which appears to me to be better than what they had originally

offered on the basis of bulk sale to Government.

Whether or not the Indian government can be praised for smart tactics in not

accepting the original offer is a matter of speculation and conjecture. And

whether it was simply a matter of procrastination and lack

of will that has happened to have a more positive if unintended outcome is

anybodies guess.

However it does point to some interesting issues regarding the elasticity of

price, even where an indigenous manufacturer is concerned, and not simply one of

the mega-multinationals. One wonders whether the price

would have stablised if Government had decided to purchase at the original

quoted rate.

Similarly, for those who are hostile to the companies, including the indigenous

ones, there are some interesting paradoxes to be observed in the current

patenting and regulatory wars. While it is possible to

suggest there is little altruism in the struggle to manufacture generics, as it

makes good commercial sense to do so, nevertheless on a global comparison scale,

a victory for indigenous manufacturers of generics

(not just Indian by the way), would have a significant impact on world pricing

of anti-retrovirals. At the same time it might be worth noting that the WTO wars

on patenting anti-retrovirals probably has very

little to do with HIV as such, or even the profits to be made from the

de-regulated manufacture of anti-retrovirals per se. The anti-retroviral debate

is as much a debate about intellectual property rights and

patenting ACROSS THE BOARD as it is about HIV. The general pharmaceuticals

market is vastly larger than the HIV market is now or ever will be, and a

victory for the generic manufacturers on HIV drugs is no doubt

the tip of the iceberg from the manufacturing and profit point of view.

Quentin

E-mail:vicente@...