India Grants Pfizer Patent On Pneumonia Vaccine, Stokes Fear Of Unaffordability

MUMBAI (Reuters) – India has granted Pfizer Inc a patent for its powerful pneumonia vaccine Prevenar 13, in a blow to some health groups that said this would put the treatment out of reach of thousands in poorer nations.

The decision by India’s patent office bars other companies from making cheaper copies of the vaccine and allows Pfizer to exclusively sell it in India until 2026.

It’s a big victory for the US drugmaker in a market that has the world’s largest number of pneumonia cases, a lung disease that kills nearly a million children a year globally.

Tuesday’s decision also has international implications, as several poorer nations rely on India’s robust drugs industry to supply cheaper copies of medicines and vaccines.

For the complete Reuters story, see here.

For an indepth analysis of this issue by IP-Watch, see (IPW, IP and Health, 12 April 2017).