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'Drop the Case'
Evergreening and the issues this practice of abusive patenting raised were first highlighted in the late 1990s with the HIV epidemic, when medicines were priced way out of reach. The Supreme Court’s rejection of Novartis’s patent has set in place an important safeguard to ensure production of affordable generic medicines from India.
That patents on medicines can make the difference between life and death for millions, first hit home with the AIDS pandemic, when medicines to treat HIV were priced way out of reach of patients and governments in developing countries.1 In 1999, in the wake of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, MSF launched the Access Campaign. At the time patented HIV treatment cost more than $10,000 per patient per year. One of the first tasks of the Access Campaign was to challenge the high costs of existing drugs – such as those to treat HIV/AIDS – and working to bring prices down for its medical projects in South Africa and Thailand.
Evergreening and AIDS Treatment
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