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How India's Patent Office Destroyed Gilead's Global Game Plan
Posted on 1/15/15 at 11:33 pm
Posted on 1/15/15 at 11:33 pm
quote:
Gilead Sciences charges a lot for the hepatitis treatment Sovaldi, which sells for as much as $84,000 to U.S. patients. The innovative medication has become one of the world's best-selling drugs despite its price tag, fueling huge growth at Gilead. The company had revenue of $24.2 billion in 2014, according to analysts' estimates, more than double its sales in 2013. Earnings for last year are projected to reached $12.8 billion, more than four times higher.
But the high price of Sovaldi threatens to make the drug too expensive for many patients with hepatitis C in developing countries such as India, where protesters last year lobbed accusations of gouging and carried signs renaming the company "Killead." In September the U.S. pharmaceutical company announced a licensing deal with seven Indian drugmakers to produce generic versions of Sovaldi that could be sold in 91 countries. That, according to Gilead, would help take care of the problem. "Our view is that the competition and the capabilities of these partners will bring down the price," Gregg Alton, executive vice president, told reporters in New Delhi at the time of the announcement.
Unfortunately for Gilead, this week government officials stepped in the way: India's patent office on Tuesday sided with critics who had challenged the company's patent. By rejecting the claim, the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks has opened the door for more Indian pharmaceutical companies to produce sofosbuvir, the generic version of Sovaldi. And unlike the seven companies that agreed to the deal with Gilead in September, the newcomers won't have any restrictions on where they can sell their generics.
"Getting sofosbuvir out of the stronghold of Gilead's monopoly will be crucial to expanding treatment for people with hepatitis C globally," Dr. Manica Balasegaram, executive director of the Action Campaign of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières, one of the groups behind the Indian patent office challenge, said in a statement.
LINK
Posted on 1/16/15 at 7:08 am to Street Hawk
What were the development costs. Keep it up and you reduce the incentive for firms to pump up R&D spending.
Posted on 1/16/15 at 8:21 am to SM6
It's like people think that treatment/cures just happen and they are owed them as cheap as possible.
Posted on 1/16/15 at 8:34 am to Street Hawk
quote:
Getting sofosbuvir out of the stronghold of Gilead's monopoly
You could have pulled this straight from Atlas Shrugged.
Posted on 1/16/15 at 8:53 am to SM6
quote:
What were the development costs. Keep it up and you reduce the incentive for firms to pump up R&D spending
I'm sure development costs were high. Of course, the R&D tax credit helps offset some of that.
Looking at their third quarter guidance, their projected total year R&D is 2.4 billion. If their earnings are 12.8 billion... I think there is some wiggle room for reduced revenues that will still allow them to do research.
Companies like that, R&D is their lifeblood. They don't do R&D, they go out of business.
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