Cipla Indian Perspective

Cipla Pharmaceuticals' Yusuf Hamied: 'I Am Not Against Patents ... I Am Against Monopolies': India Knowledge@Wharton (http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/article.cfm?articleid=4374)

Cipla Pharmaceuticals' Yusuf Hamied: 'I Am Not Against Patents ... I Am Against Monopolies'

Published : May 07, 2009 in India Knowledge@Wharton

Many basic, life-saving medications remain unaffordable in low-and middle-income countries. Spurred on by that fact, Yusuf Hamied, chairman and managing director of Cipla Pharmaceuticals, has steered his enterprise to the forefront of global pharmaceutical development by manufacturing low-cost drugs for diseases like AIDS, diabetes and arthritis, among others.

Cipla has faced challenges in India and abroad from multinational pharmaceutical companies looking to protect their patents on particular medications, including antiretroviral drugs used to combat HIV infections in countries like South Africa, where access is severely limited by the annual per-person cost of US$10,000 to US$15,000. Most recently, the Delhi high court awarded Cipla the right to continue selling a low-cost generic equivalent of the lung cancer drug Tarceva following a patent-infringement suit by the drug's manufacturer, Swiss pharmaceutical company Hoffman-LaRoche. Born in Lithuania but raised in Mumbai, Hamied received a PhD in chemistry from Christ's College, Cambridge University. In 2005, the Indian government gave him the Padma Bhushan award, one of the country's highest civilian honors. In an interview with India Knowledge@Wharton, Hamied describes his company's skirmishes with multinationals looking to protect their patents on particular medications and explains why rules governing intellectual property rights in industrialized nations should not apply to poorer countries. India Knowledge@Wharton: What are the key lessons to be learned by Indian lawmakers from the controversy in AIDS-ravaged South Africa? Yusuf Hamied: The controversy in AIDS-ravaged...