We’re pleased to inform you that Inter-University Centre for IPR Studies (IUCIPRS), Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), Cochin, is organising a webinar on ‘Patented Medicines and Price Control – Impact on Access to Medicines’ on 6th October, 2020. For further details, please see the announcement below:
Webinar on ‘Patented Medicines and Price Control – Impact on Access to Medicine’ | October 6
Inter-University Centre for IPR Studies (IUCIPRS), Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), Cochin, is conducting a national webinar on ‘Patented Medicines and Price Control – Impact on Access to Medicines‘ on Tuesday, 6th October, 2020, from 4.00 pm – 5.30 pm.
About the Webinar
Patents grant a limited monopoly to the patent owner from unauthorised use of the patented invention. Patents pose an insurmountable barrier to affordable access, particularly in the context of medicines. Pharmaceutical companies often abuse the patent monopoly by charging exorbitant prices for patented medicines. This abuse makes medicines resulting in the denial of efficacious treatment for life threatening diseases to a substantial section of the patient population. In India, Drug Price Control Order (DPCO) 2013 empowers the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) to cap the maximum retail prices of medicines in the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM). Further, DPCO also mandates the NPPA to fix the prices of any medicines in the public interest. Similarly, DPCO also prohibits increases in prices of those medicines which are outside the price control beyond 10% in a year. At the same time, DPCO 2013 exempted indigenously developed new medicines patented under the Indian Patents Act 1970, from price control. While the original exemption from price control included only those patented medicines which are outcomes of R&D carried out in India, the amendment in 2019 expanded the scope of the exemption to include all the patented medicines. This amendment has the potential to make the DPCO 2013 redundant.
The aim of the webinar is to deliberate on the issue of price control for patented medicines in India. The resource persons are experts from the CSO/NGOs who advocate changes in policy particularly to make medicines affordable.
Resource Persons
- Mr. Gopakumar K M, Senior Researcher, Third World Network (TWN) – Chair
- Dr. Sakthivel Selvaraj, Director, Health Economics, Financing and Policy, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI)
- Ms. Pratibha Sivasubramanian, Legal Researcher, Third World Network (TWN)
Program Coordinator: Dr. I. G. Rathish, Assistant Professor, IUCIPRS, CUSAT
Student Coordinators: Adv. Sreenath K P, LLM (IP) – PhD, IUCIPRS, CUSAT; and Adv. Alfi Anwar, LLM (IPR) – PhD, IUCIPRS, CUSAT
Procedure for Registration
Please fill the registration form: https://forms.gle/Js4ykJNe2aiE3Eia8 and submit.
A link for joining the webinar will be sent to the registered email a day prior to the scheduled webinar. Registration is free and an e-certificate will be issued to the participants who attend the webinar. The webinar will be conducted on the Google Meet platform.