Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit

Indian company produces cheaper AZT

By Shishir Thadani

An Indian drug company recently announced it could produce the 
AIDS-treatment drug AZT and market it at one-quarter the cost 
charged to patients in the U.S. But Burroughs-Wellcome, which 
produces and sells AZT in the U.S., has moved to prevent 
pharmacies around the world from purchasing the Indian drug.

Burroughs-Wellcome has threatened the Indian company with a 
patent-violation lawsuit. But Indian patent laws are different 
from those in the U.S. Drugs cannot be patented in India; only 
the chemical processes used to manufacture drugs can be patented.

The Indian company has an original manufacturing process. In 
fact, a company spokesperson said the firm could compete in the 
U.S. market and thus begin higher-volume production.

The drug is already being produced and many Third World countries
have expressed interest in purchasing it. Some are considering 
setting up local manufacturing plants with the Indian company's 
assistance.

As a goodwill gesture, the Indian government has sent subsidized 
shipments of the drug to other Third World countries. Public 
health officials in Brazil, Thailand and some East African 
countries are following this development with great interest.

But the U.S. government and its imperialist allies in Europe and 
Japan are bringing tremendous pressure on the Indian government 
to change its more progressive patent laws to mirror those in the
U.S.

Washington's tight patent laws in particular retard technological
development and competition and hurt consumers. This is 
especially true in the health-care field, and in the case of AIDS
and other life-threatening illnesses this issue becomes a matter 
of life and death.

If the U.S. government succeeds in its effort to stymie Indian 
production of the drug, it would drastically increase the death 
rate because very few Indians are able to purchase drugs at the 
monopoly prices charged by the imperialist drug cartels.

Health care costs in the U.S. are astronomical, in large part 
because of the patent laws and trade restrictions against 
importing drugs from Third World countries. Shouldn't people with
AIDS in the U.S. also be permitted to benefit from technological 
developments taking place in India or any other Third World 
country?

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if
source is cited. For more info contact Workers World, 46 W. 21
St., New York, NY 10010; email: ww%nyxfer@igc.apc.org; "workers"
on PeaceNet; on Internet: "workers@mcimail.com".)


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