Cutting cancer drug price 'makes Colombia pioneer' in cost control

22 December 2016

The price of Swiss pharma giant Novartis’ (NOVN: VX) cancer drug Glivec/Gleevec (imatinib) will now be 44% lower in Colombia than previously, the country’s health authorities have decided.

This follows the Ministry of Health’s formal declaration in June that a compulsory licence for the patents on the drug is in the public interest, since negotiations with Novartis on the price had failed.

By stripping a patent from a private company, this threatens to erode innovation by eroding global intellectual property standards, said angry industry groups as they condemned the move.

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