Dutch patient organisation Inspire2Live is going to try to duplicate expensive cancer medication, and put it on the market for a fraction of the current price.
With this action, they are hoping to provoke a test case trial, when the patent owning pharmaceutical companies sue them.
"We want to provoke a test case, to make a judge decide what is more important: the right to health and healthcare, or patent right", says Peter Kapitein, driving force behind the initiative.
The plan is to either duplicate Nivolumab (used for treating lung cancer), or Olaparib (ovary cancer). Both medicine cost many tens of thousands of euros per patient per year. When first introduced, Nivolumab even cost 134 thousand euros per patient per year. Because of it's high price, it wasn't included in health insurance initially. "This has cost the lives of people", says Kapitein.
The counterfeit medication will cost about 1/10th of the patented drugs, according to Kapitein.
Inspire2Live emphasizes that it's action is not intended to annoy the pharmaceutical industry.
"It is the government we are aiming for. They give the patent holder a 15 year monopoly when they create a new drug. Those laws - that allow producers to ask any price they want for 15 years - has to change".
Inspire2Live has formed an alliance with Cinderella Therapeutics, a foundation that develops medication that is not commercially interesting.
"We have already forged Olaparib for an individual patient", says hemato-oncologist Haagenbeek, chairman of Cinderella Therapeutics. "Nivolumab is a bit harder, because it's a protein, but we will succeed in producing that too.
The ingredients will be obtained from India and China, according to the Inspire2Live website.
According to the official producer of Nivolumab, Bristol Myers Squibb, it won't be very easy to reproduce that drug. "We shall patiently await the developments", says the company's spokesman.
Arnold Versteeg, a lawyer from Amsterdam, specialized in healthcare says that "patent right is very strong. However, a test case trial shouldn't be dismissed as hopeless. The owner of a patent does have a legal obligation to take the consumer's rights into account. Especially with medication that can mean the difference between life and death".
https://www.volkskrant.nl/wetenschap/patientenorganisatie-hoopt-kankermedicatie-goedkoper-te-maken-door-te-kopieren~a4520113/interesting, let's see how that plays out