Re:India Supreme Court rejects Novartis' right to patent new...
by zrb on Tuesday April 02, 2013 @01:25AM
(#5477837)
The rich Indians will go abroad for treatment. The poor Indians can't afford the drug anyway. The middle class will be squeezed, but they will manage through relatives, friends etc.
India win, Novartis lose
Re:India Supreme Court rejects Novartis' right to patent new...
by intended on Tuesday April 02, 2013 @06:27AM
(#5478497)
Why is this being downvoted? This is not reddit, if you disagree with his post, please give us an idea why.
As far as it goes, the only contentious part of his comment is the last line - India win, Novartis lose.
Otherwise his description of how Indians tend to deal with drug costs is a succinct portrayal of the current reality.
Trust me as an Indian I can tell you these supreme court rulings are pretty much a engraving on the stone which nobody apart from the parliament of India can erase.
What this basically means is the supreme court ruling stands final without any change.
Will be interesting to see how Novartis responds. Last time our country faced these situations(sanctions etc) we made attempts to not depend on others and be self sufficient.
The net result is it has been beneficial to us and disastrous to companies in the west[Read: Growth of IT industry, space research, defense self sufficiency].
If Novartis decides to take these extortion tactics. The Government of India might as well invest heavily on pharmaceutical research, and come out with some real alternatives and then compete with their western counterparts globally.
A lot of people will suffer, but this is the likely outcome I see, Given the history.