A short backgrounder:

My mom suffered from stroke almost a year ago. Since then, she has to take Norvasc (distributed by Pfizer) on a daily basis. At Mercury Drug, the price of Norvasc 10mg is around Php75 (discounts — if your doctor had given you the Pfizer Sulit Card, which gives you a 50% discount for Norvasc — applied) per tablet. According to news reports, the price of Norvasc in India (also distributed by Pfizer) is just around Php10-20 only per tablet.

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RP challenges Pfizer patent on drug vs high blood

A petition was filed Tuesday to cancel Pfizer’s Philippine patent on the anti-hypertension drug Norvasc after a U.S. court invalidated the company’s rights over its second best-selling medicine.

The Philippine International Trading Corp., the government agency in charge of importing pharmaceutical products, argued before the Intellectual Property Office that the patent on amlodipine besylate — or Norvasc — should not have been granted to Pfizer Limited, the UK-based branch of Pfizer Inc., in 1990 because it was not a new product.

PITC acting head Teddy Rivera said voiding Pfizer’s patent on the drug — with annual sales of P1.5 billion (US$31 million; euro23 million) — would mean savings of up to P100 million (US$2 million; euro1.5 million) a month for Filipino consumers, who could buy the cheaper, generic version of the medicine.

Cancellation of the patent before its scheduled expiry in June would also lead to the early dismissal of a lawsuit filed by Pfizer against PITC and the Bureau of Food and Drugs for patent infringement, Rivera told a news conference.

The suit was filed last year after the drugs bureau approved PITC’s import registration for the generic version of Norvasc from Pakistan that is nearly four times cheaper than Pfizer’s selling price of P45 (US$0.95; euro.70) for Norvasc.

“It is the position of government that the patent … issued was void from the beginning and therefore it should be canceled today,” said Alberto Agra, government’s corporate counsel.

Shalimar Vitan of the international aid agency Oxfam said Pfizer has abused its patent protection to the detriment of the poor.

“It is all right for companies to profit,” she said. “The problem is if it means loss of access to medicine and health for the poor.”

Mercy Fabros of AGAP, a coalition pushing for cheaper medicines, noted that hypertension is a leading killer in the Philippines, and for Filipinos, Norvasc’s cost “is really a matter of life and death.”

In March, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed a lower court ruling upholding Pfizer’s patent on Norvasc, paving the way for sales of generic versions.

The court ruled that the drug’s key ingredient, amlodipine besylate, was an obvious variation of earlier inventions. – AP

Taken from http://www.gmanews.tv/story/41465/RP-challenges-Pfizer-patent-on-drug-vs-high-blood