Colombia battles world's biggest drugmaker over cancer drug

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — 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.

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.

Government health programs in many countries are being squeezed by high prices for newly launched drugs and by annual price hikes of 10 percent or more for medicines long on the market, and they are increasingly pushing back by demanding big discounts or setting price caps on ultra-expensive drugs.

[...] the Health Ministry says generic competition that previously existed has been all but driven out by Novartis' aggressive marketing and competitors' fear of prosecution for infringing the patent.

According to a study by the ministry, without competition from generics, the government would have to pay an extra $15 million a year supplying Glivec.