Colombia's government is giving pharmaceutical giant Novartis a few
weeks to lower prices on a popular cancer drug or see its monopoly on
production of the medicine broken and competition thrown open to generic
rivals.
Health Minister Alejandro Gaviria's remarks in an
interview Tuesday are the strongest yet in an increasingly public fight
with the world's biggest drugmaker that could set a precedent for
middle-income countries grappling to contain rising prices for complex
drugs.
Memos leaked last week to a nonprofit group, written
from the Colombian Embassy in Washington, describe intense lobbying
pressure on Colombia, a staunch U.S. ally, from the pharmaceutical
industry and its allies in the U.S. Congress.
In one memo, the embassy warns that breaking
Novartis' patent for the leukemia drug Gleevec could hurt U.S. support
for Colombia's bid to join the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade
zone and even jeopardize $450 million in U.S. assistance for a peace
deal with leftist rebels. The memos followed meetings between Colombian
diplomats and officials from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative
and a Republican staffer on the Senate Finance Committee whose
chairman, Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, has close ties to the pharmaceutical
industry.
"They're very afraid that Colombia could become an example that spreads across the region."
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