ViiV Healthcare accused of blocking access to life-saving HIV drugs

10 February 2016

HIV-specialist company ViiV Healthcare, majority owned by UK pharma major GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK), is facing opposition in India to two patent applications it has submitted for dolutegravir (trade name Tivicay) and cabotegravir.

A group of HIV patients, supported by Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors without Borders (MSF), has filed official opposition to the patent application which was submitted to the Kolkata Patent Office by GSK and Shionogi, which along with Pfizer is a minority partner in ViiV Healthcare.

The protestors claim that by securing the patents, ViiV Healthcare would block open generic competition among Indian producers and prevent thousands of patients from accessing life-saving medicine.

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