Dr Y K Hamied, 75-year old Chairman of India’s second largest
pharmaceuticals company, Cipla is trying to re-write the contemporary history
again. On May 3, Cipla shell-shocked the entire pharma world with its
astounding decision to cut prices of three key anti-cancer drugs by as much as
75%. In Indian market, kidney cancer drug Sofraneib (Bayer’s Nexavar) will now
cost only 6840 rupees for a month instead of current Rs 28000; lung cancer drug
Gestinib (sold as Iressa by Astrazeneca) will cost 4250, down from Rs 10000 and
brain tumour drug Temozolamide (sold by Schering) will cost just 5000 a month,
one-fourth of present Rs 20000. Even as pharma multinationals are busy devising
strategies to contain this latest assault from India’s generic czar, Dr Hamied
has said that soon Cipla would cut down prices of another 6 key anti-cancer
drugs. For millions of Indian cancer patients – every year India reports at
least 2.5 million new cases – and their families, there could not have been a
better news than this as most of them cannot afford these medicines or sustain
it beyond a few months. Actually the story started almost two months back when
India’s drug regulator granted first compulsory license to Natco Pharma to
manufacture and sell Sofraneib for just 8800 rupees a month in larger public
interest. But the entry of Cipla in this latest theatre of pharma war changes
everything.
Had it been any other person then perhaps we would have greeted this news
with a bagful of salt. But with Dr Y K Hamied, it is a different story
altogether – in September 2000, at a meeting of European Commission, he shocked
the world of big pharma and global policy-makers by announcing that he was
ready to provide a three drug cocktail of anti-HIV drugs at just $1 a day. The
cocktail (combinations of reverse transcriptase inhibitors like Lamivudine,
Stavudine/Zidovudin and protease inhibitors like Ritonavir, Indinavir) – then
the only combination available for slowing the progress of HIV/AIDS – used to
sell at $12000 for a year. Even though big pharma companies actually called him
a thief and pirate; policymakers, particularly African leaders rolled out red
carpet for him. Dr Hamied kept his word – under special licensing, first Cipla
and then a number of Indian companies were able to provide the live-saving
drugs at a fraction of a price being charged by multinationals. A New York
Times report last year estimated that when Cipla handed over its first consignment
of one year supply of drugs per patient at around $300 to Medicines Sans
Frontiers, just around 2000 patients worldwide were able to afford the
treatment. Today six million people across the world – particularly in the
developing world - are daily availing this treatment. AIDS pandemic appears
much more manageable and prices have fallen to 20 cents per day.
Acharya Prafulls Chandra Roy, founder of Bengal Chemicals, India's first modern pharmaceuticals manufacturer |
Starting from Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy and his Bengal Chemicals and
Dr U N Brahmachari, India’s first successful medical innovator turned
entrepreneur to traditional drug manufacturers like Dabur, Baidyanath and
Hamdard, India has a hoary tradition of modern pharma manufacturing. But the
real turning point came in 1970, when a new process patent regime came into
being in place of old product patent – it is believed that one of the key
advisors to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi behind this move was Dr Hamied. Though
in the new millennium, after joining the WTO, India finally reverted back to
product patent but this protection of more than 30 years made Indian pharma
companies champions of reverse engineering. They would come out with copycats
of a new drug soon after it is launched in market but would claim that they
have produced it through a different process. These copycats – technically
bioequivalents – are called generics as opposed to branded medicines. It is a
legacy of that single master stroke in the 70s, that India today is a global
leader in generics (India files maximum number of ANDAs or Abbreviated New Drug
Applications with USFDA, required to formally launch a copycat drug) and the world’s
third largest drugs manufacturer with nearly 20000 registered drug companies
and more than 100 USFDA-certified manufacturing facilities.
A patent normally grants 20-years exclusivity to the holder, but on
public health grounds, even the USA permits generic drugs ro ensure
affordability. So far generic companies were able to copy only simple
formulations. India and China together already control more than 80% production
of active drug ingredients. Now with advanced facilities, they are closing in
fast on complex bio-tech drugs used to treat cancer, diabetes and other
diseases. Cipla and its Chinese partner BioMab have invested nearly $200
million in new production facilities to manufacture these complex drugs. Global
pharma giants fear that within next one year or so Indian and Chinese companies
would be able to sell most of their current blockbuster drugs. Compared to
anti-retroviral drugs (which had a small share in their profit pie), what is at
stake here is actually the very survival of these companies. For instance half
of Roche’s annual sales of around $40 billion now comes from three drugs –
Herceptin(for breast cancer), Avastin (for Colon cancer) and Rituxan(for
non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma) and generic versions for all three are scheduled to hit
the market in near future.
Reaction from the global giants and the self-proclaimed upholders of strong
patent regime came along the expected lines. The crux of their argument is that
this kind of porous patent regime would kill any incentive for new drug
discovery. But Cipla along with other Indian (and some Israeli) companies have
demonstrated that you can still make money by selling drugs at drastically
reduced prices – that simply means these pharma giants are selling life-saving
drugs at unacceptably high margins. When the fight is actually between saving
human lives and naked profit then the verdict - at least in the long term – has
to go against these companies. It is a matter of deep shame that both the USA
and the EU – in the garb of intellectual property rights, patent etc – are
trying to promote the interests of limited few against the suffering multitude.
Dr K A Hamied, founder of Cipla |
Born in Lithuanian capital Vilnius – his mother was a Lithuanian Jewish
socialist - Dr Hamied grew up in Bombay and now lives mostly in London. In
Bombay, as a school boy he used to play cricket with his neighbourhood friend
Zubin Mehta. It is no wonder that Dr Hamied himself is a devoted fan of Western
Classical music. His father Dr K A Hamied studied in Germany and then came back
to teach at Aligarh. A disciple of Mahatma Gandhi, he was one of the founders
of Jamia Milia Islamia before setting up Chemical, Industrial and
Pharmaceuticals Laboratories, which came to be known as Cipla. Even today, the
pride of place in Cipla’s website goes to Gandhi’s visit to Cipla factory in
1939. Dr K A Hamied also drafted the blue-print of a chain of nation-wide
scientific research institutions, which led to the formation of CSIR, the apex
scientific research body in India.
Dr Hamied receiving Padma Bhushan from Prez Kalam |
Today Dr Y K Hamied runs a charity cancer hospital in India and funds
research in his alma mater, Christ College, Cambridge, where Yusuf Hamied
centre opened its doors in 2009. Time and again Dr Hamied has underlined
Cipla’s social commitment and humanitarian concerns. Cipla has managed to
fulfill that without having to compromise its balance sheets. As he embarks on
another pioneering journey, along with millions of cancer patients and their
worried friends and family, the entire humanity would be praying for his
success.
P.S. 1. cancer drug price protest in the USA http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-05-15/news/31711440_1_novartis-india-anti-cancer-drug-generic-drugs
2. Alternative model for innovation http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/comments-analysis/shift-from-patents-regime-to-prize-based-system-will-revolutionise-research-and-healthcare/articleshow/13335304.cms
3. Compulsory licencing upheld http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/patients-win-over-patents/article4482469.ece
P.S. 1. cancer drug price protest in the USA http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-05-15/news/31711440_1_novartis-india-anti-cancer-drug-generic-drugs
2. Alternative model for innovation http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/comments-analysis/shift-from-patents-regime-to-prize-based-system-will-revolutionise-research-and-healthcare/articleshow/13335304.cms
3. Compulsory licencing upheld http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/patients-win-over-patents/article4482469.ece
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