African AIDS victims fret over India patent case

By Jeremy Clarke

NAIROBI (Reuters) - AIDS patients line up at dawn outside a small medical center in one of Kenya's teeming slums.

Dr Ivy Mwangi has 1,800 HIV sufferers on her books, but as the winding queue outside steadily grows, her thoughts are on a court case more than 5,000 km (3,000 miles) away in India.

The proceedings pit Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG against an Indian patent system that it says stifles innovation.

Mwangi fears it could end up costing many, many lives.

"Even with innovation and the development of new drugs, if this case goes through they won't be available to millions who need HIV treatment in the developing world," she said.

At first glance, the link is obscure. Novartis doesn't actually make AIDS medicines. The drug under discussion in a Chennai courtroom, Glivec, is a treatment for rare cancers.

But the trial has become a flashpoint in a long-running battle between "big pharma" and humanitarian campaigners who argue manufacturers are putting patents ahead of patients.

The AIDS virus infects around 40 million people globally, two-thirds of them in sub-Saharan Africa. Most, like Mwangi's patients in Mathare slum, scrape a living in abject poverty.

CHEAP INDIAN SUPPLIES

Health campaigners fear stronger patent laws enacted by India in 2005 -- which Novartis is trying to shore up in the case of Glivec -- will jeopardize India's role as a source of cheap generic medicines for the most needy.

Medical aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres estimates over half of AIDS drugs used in poor countries come from India. If Novartis wins its case, more medicines will end up being patented, making it very difficult for Indian firms to manufacture cheap copies, it says.

Stung by criticism from campaign groups, Novartis insists tighter intellectual property laws will, in fact, ensure future investment in new medicines by rewarding research.

"I'm convinced -- and I'm a scientist -- that patents save lives, because without patents you cannot discover and develop new drugs and get them to patients," Paul Herrling, Novartis head of corporate research, said in an interview in London.

The company points out that safeguards already exist in international trade agreements. These protect access to essential medicines by allowing for the export of drugs which are produced under compulsory licenses, issued for public health reasons.

Many companies also run access programs, which offer affordable brand-name equivalents to cheap generics.