A growing conflict between Indian officials, intent on making lifesaving medicine accessible to those who need them, and pharmaceutical corporations, seeking always to maximize profit, is revealing the stark reality of health care under capitalism. The truth is made clear in a comment made by Marijn Dekkers, Bayer’s Chief Executive Officer: “We did not develop this medicine for Indians…We developed it for western patients who can afford it.”
Dekkers was objecting to the Indian government’s establishment of a panel authorized to study which drugs should be manufactured and sold at considerably lower prices by Indian companies. The policy, called Compulsory Licensing, is focusing on drugs used in the treatment of several diseases, including diabetes, cancer, HIV, leukemia, and arthritis.
Savings can bring the drugs within the reach of people who otherwise would not be able to afford them. In March, 2012, the first such authorization was given to Natco Pharma, Ltd. The company began producing copies of the anti-cancer drug Nexavar, making it available at a price 97 percent lower than Bayer, the original manufacturer. In March, 2013, a court ruled against Bayer’s attempt to stop Natco’s manufacturing of the drug. Bayer is now appealing the ruling.
Roche, another pharmaceutical company, in 2012 took a different approach with its breast cancer medicine, Herceptin. Acknowledging the political realities, and growing opposition to profit-driven pricing of drugs, it simply sold a version of the drug, packaged by an Indian company, at a lower price.
The lives of millions of Indians could be affected by changes in the drug pricing. The International Diabetes Federation estimates that 65 million Indians suffer from the disease, and the joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS estimates that 2.1 million people are living with AIDS.
The push to make drugs more affordable faces numerous roadblocks. The panel’s proposals need approval from Indian government agencies before they can be put into effect, and drug companies, with the support of U.S. politicians, are fighting back to preserve their profits. The House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Committee on Finance asked the U.S. International Trade Commission to investigate what it described as: “Indian policies that discriminate against U.S. trade and investment.”
The ongoing struggle perfectly illustrates the uses of science and medicine under capitalism, not as a means to improve health and save lives, but simply as a way to make ever greater profits.
