The world is indeed becoming a globalized village. Action in one corner seems to impact life thousands of miles away, even if separated by oceans!
Brazil HIV/AIDS activists are appealing to India not to grant patent to tenofovir. For if the Californian firm Gilead Sciences are to be given the patent, it would come in the way of import of the generic version from Indian firms. The application filed by Gilead has been pending in India since 2005.
Tenofovir is recommended by the World Health Organisation as a treatment for those who suffer side-effects from other HIV drugs or those who develop drug resistance.
Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, commonly known just as tenofovir, is in a class of antiviral medications called reverse transcriptase inhibitors. When HIV infects a cell, reverse transcriptase copies the viral single stranded RNA genome into a double-stranded viral DNA. The viral DNA is then integrated into the host chromosomal DNA which then allows host cellular processes, such as transcription and translation to reproduce the virus. RTIs block reverse transcriptase's enzymatic function and prevent completion of synthesis of the double-stranded viral DNA thus preventing HIV from multiplying.
Brazilian AIDS advocacy group ABIA (Brazilian Interdisciplinary AIDS Association) and the Indian NGO SAHARA (Centre for Residential Care & Rehabilitation) have submitted an opposition against the grant of a patent in India to Gilead Sciences for the key AIDS drug tenofovir.
The opposition has been filed on the ground that the drug consists of a previously known compound, and should not be considered an invention according to India's Patents Act. India's patent law is pro-public health, with strict patentability criteria. A major public-health safeguard in the law is the provision against patenting of minor improvements of known medicines (section 3(d)). The law also allows any party to oppose patent applications that do not deserve patents under Indian law.
