The Swiss drugmaker is quickly losing the public relations battle in the Gleevec controversy.

To date, the only attempt Novartis appears to be making at persuading anyone its motives for challenging India’s patents laws aren’t wrong or evil is to have Paul Herrling, the head of research, talk to the press. But he isn’t very convincing.

Although articulate, he hasn’t made a sympathetic case. And he was put on the defensive when asked about comparisons to the row a few years ago over AIDS drugs and South Africa, in which the pharmaceutical industry lost a bruising public relations and legal war.

“That was a mistake, we all agree … but the parallel is wrong,” Herrling told Reuters. “Then the pharma companies were limiting the access by saying you can only have my drug if you pay. Here we are saying we would like a good patent protection in India for the paying market, for those people who can afford it. But meanwhile we are going to make Glivec available to any Indian person who is diagnosed and cannot pay, so that’s a pretty different stance.”

Novartis has the right to press its case in court, but the ‘risk-reward ratio’ is growing higher each day as a growing number of people don’t seem to believe the company’s explanations. The question is ‘why should they?’ Novartis can’t seem to answer this.
[tags]Gleevec, India, Novartis, Patents[/tags]