Hypertension patients take side of gov’t agencies vs Pfizer Associated Press
November 14, 2006
FOUR Filipinos suffering from hypertension on Tuesday asked a court to allow them to join the government's defense in a lawsuit lodged by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer over alleged patent violation of its anti-high blood pressure drug, Norvasc.
Human rights lawyer Marvic Leonen told the court that allowing his clients to participate in the case would enable it to "consider the significant public issues presented in the light of the interest of all consumers."
In March, Pfizer sued the Philippine International Trading Corp. and the Bureau of Food and Drugs and asked for an import registration for the generic version of Norvasc to be revoked.
The suit was filed at the Regional Trial Court in Makati city.
Leonen said his clients have "material interest" in the case since they suffer from the "unreasonably high price" of the Pfizer medicine. He said intellectual property rights "should balance the monopoly rights of the patent owner and those who need the drug for therapeutic purposes."
Pfizer said in June that its lawsuit was "simply a matter of protecting our patent for amlodipine besylate," the active ingredient in Norvasc, until it's 17-year patent expires in June 2007.
In a statement Tuesday, the company said PITC had imported drugs from "unauthorized sources," raising "serious concerns" over patients' safety. It also said some PITC outlets already were selling the drug in violation of the patent.
PITC head Roberto Pagdanganan acknowledged that his organization had ordered 80 sample tablets but he said they were obtained from a Pfizer Pakistan rather than an "unauthorized" source, and he denied that pills were being sold.
"Instead of making baseless allegations they should bring down their prices. They should explain why Pfizer Pakistan can sell it at 10 pesos and they are selling it at 45 pesos," Pagdanganan said.
One of Leonen's clients, 82-year-old Jose Sapian, who gets a monthly pension of P2,900 (US$58) as a retired government employee, suffered a stroke in 2004 and survives on a daily dose of Norvasc costing P44.75 (US$0.90).
PITC's Pagdanganan has said Pfizer's local price for Norvasc is about five times what it costs in Pakistan. A Pfizer painkiller, Ponstan, is priced 14 times higher in the Philippines than in Pakistan, he added.
Pfizer said its legal action "in no way compromises the health of patients in the Philippines as more than 200 other anti-hypertensive medicines without existing patents locally are available to prescribers and patients."
