{"id":219481,"date":"2022-12-22T19:27:26","date_gmt":"2022-12-22T13:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=219481"},"modified":"2022-12-22T19:27:26","modified_gmt":"2022-12-22T13:57:26","slug":"the-need-to-make-cancer-drugs-affordable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-need-to-make-cancer-drugs-affordable\/","title":{"rendered":"The need to make cancer drugs affordable"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/span><\/b>: The post is based on the article <\/span>\u201c<\/span><\/b>The need to make cancer drugs affordable<\/span><\/b>\u201d <\/span><\/b>published in<\/span> The Hindu <\/span><\/b>on <\/span>22nd December 2022<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/span><\/b>GS2 – Issues related to the development and management of health<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Relevance<\/span><\/b>: About the high cost of cancer treatment<\/span><\/p>\n

News<\/span><\/b>: The article explains the issue of the high cost of cancer treatment in India.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are some facts related to the high cost of cancer treatment in India?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

The <\/span>Rajya Sabha Standing Committee on Health<\/span><\/b> noted that \u201cabout 40% of cancer hospitalisation cases are financed mainly through borrowings, sale of assets and contributions from friends and relatives\u201d.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This situation has arisen because even average <\/span>out of pocket spending<\/span><\/b> on cancer care is too high. Spending on cancer care in private facilities is about three times that of public facilities. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to <\/span>WHO<\/span><\/b>, the costs associated with other medical care and interventions such as surgical interventions and supportive care would make overall care even more <\/span>unaffordable<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the treatment protocol for breast cancer, <\/span>CDK (cyclin-dependent kinase) inhibitors<\/span><\/b> constitute a <\/span>major therapeutic tool<\/span><\/b>. These three drugs belong to this therapeutic class. A month\u2019s treatment using these drugs could range between \u20b948,000 and \u20b995,000.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the impacts of the high cost of cancer treatment?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

The <\/span>high treatment cost<\/span><\/b> has seriously impacted <\/span>survival rates <\/span><\/b>in developing countries. In the case of <\/span>breast cancer<\/span><\/b>, the five-year survival rate in India is estimated to be 65%. In high-income countries, it is nearly 90%.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The<\/span> lack of access<\/span><\/b> to these critical medicines has pushed the life of patients and their families into deep <\/span>financial stress<\/span><\/b>. It has affected their right to live with dignity, a fundamental right guaranteed under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Supreme Court in several judgments has interpreted the <\/span>right to health<\/span><\/b> as an extension of the <\/span>right to life under Article 21<\/span><\/b>. According to the <\/span>WHO Constitution<\/span><\/b>, \u201cenjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the <\/span>fundamental rights<\/span><\/b> of every human being\u201d.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What explains the high cost of cancer treatment?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

Recover research and development cost<\/strong>: According to pharmaceutical companies, they spend over $3 billion bringing a new molecule to the market. They must recover these costs.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, the WHO observed that spending on <\/span>research and development<\/span><\/b> may bear little or no relationship to how pharmaceutical companies set cancer medicine prices. Companies set prices with an eye to <\/span>maximise profits<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Intellectual property protection:<\/span><\/b> The pharma companies can exercise <\/span>monopoly control<\/span><\/b> over their products.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The scope and the power of these monopolies can become nearly absolute due to several factors. Ordinarily, patent rights over a medicine last until the expiry of its patent term.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the case of pharmaceutical patents, the leading firms in the industry often obtain patents on <\/span>incremental innovations<\/span><\/b> involving older medicines. It is called <\/span>evergreening<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is the way forward to overcome the high cost of cancer treatment?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

The most obvious option is to authorise Indian companies to domestically produce high-priced cancer medicines, by granting <\/span>compulsory licences<\/span><\/b> in keeping with <\/span>Sections 84 and 92 of the Patents Act<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Government can invoke provisions of <\/span>Section 100<\/span><\/b>. It <\/span>empowers the government<\/span><\/b> to authorise any entity to use a patented invention <\/span>without the authorisation<\/span><\/b> of the patent holder. According to the <\/span>Rajya Sabha\u2019s Standing Committee on Health<\/span><\/b>, invoking the provisions of Section 100 seems to be the best way forward.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on the article \u201cThe need to make cancer drugs affordable\u201d published in The Hindu on 22nd December 2022.\u00a0 Syllabus: GS2 – Issues related to the development and management of health\u00a0 Relevance: About the high cost of cancer treatment News: The article explains the issue of the high cost of cancer… Continue reading The need to make cancer drugs affordable<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10311,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10498],"class_list":["post-219481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704932061},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219481\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}