The health ministry is actively considering compulsory licensing of rare disease drugs apart from price cap. But recently the department of pharmaceuticals (DoP) has abruptly issued an order exempting orphan drugs from price control, disrupting health ministry’s plan of making these drugs affordable. As per the compulsory license provision under Indian Patent Act the government can mandate a genetic-drug-marker to produce inexpensive medicine in public interest even if the patent of the product is valid.
The health ministry discussed about compulsory licensing and price capping of these orphan drugs in a meeting on 3 rd January. At the same time the DoP issued its order notifying removing price caps from several medicines and orphan drugs. After this decision, the All India Drug Action Network co-convenor said, “The decision reveals a deep discordance between various arms of the…
