The Hindu Business Line : `Patent regime changes will hit healthcare'

THE transition from process patents to product patents is threatening to undermine the edifice of the Kerala model of healthcare that was built on the cornerstones of social justice and equity to deliver "good health at low cost."

The warning comes from Dr B. Ekbal, former vice-chancellor of the University of Kerala. The occasion was the session on `Indian Patent Laws Changes and the Medical Profession' convened as part of the 13th State annual conference of the Qualified Private Medical Practitioners' Association here.

The changes in the patent regime would make it increasingly difficult for the poor and the middle class to meet healthcare expenses, Dr Ekbal said. Under the process patent regime that was valid in the country since 1970, Indian companies were allowed to resort to indigenous processes to make cheap generics of drugs patented in other countries.

However, with the product patent regime in place, this would not be possible any more and all new drugs patented would be priced very high.

Dr Ekbal, who is also the national convener of the People's Health Movement, said the medical profession has a major role to play in the changed context.

Medical practitioners can, for instance, help the common man by prescribing only the necessary essential drugs while avoiding non-essential ones. This would entail that doctors become drug price-conscious in the first place.

They should also select cheaper but quality drugs available in the market instead of going for the costly alternatives marketed by big multinationals.

For instance, the same class of drugs has come to be marketed by different companies at different prices.

In the case of Atenolol, a drug commonly used for management of heart diseases, the lowest priced quality drug marketed by an Indian company is priced at 40 paise a tablet whereas the price of the widely prescribed brand of a multinational company is Rs 2.30 a tablet.

Besides being price conscious, doctors should avoid prescribing drugs of dubious therapeutic benefits, irrational combination drugs and those drugs banned in other countries.

Drug companies are spending about 40 per cent of their sales turnover for drug promotion, mostly targeting doctors.

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