[NEWS] India Grants First Compulsory License For Generic Anti-Cancer Drug

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For the first time ever Natco Pharma has won a compulsory license claim to produce sorafenib tosylate – an anti-cancer drug. According to the terms of the ruling Natco will be able to manufacture until 2020, the rest of the patent term but is limited to domestic sale. 
Natco’s generic price proposal will was for 3% of what Bayer is charging at Rs. 8,800 per patient per month. Under the WTO’s TRIPS Agreement, CLs are a legally recognized means to overcome barriers in accessing affordable medicines.

You can read the full decision here and find out more on generics in India here.

[REPORT] Powering Up Rural India

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By Florence Au

India is a country of great diversity and
contradictions.  In a country of 1.1 billion people, there were 465
million mobile subscribers at the end of September 2009. Yet, in the same
period India also had the largest number of people in the world without access
to electricity. The per capita electricity consumption rate in India is 480Wh/capita in 2005; lower
than the rates of Brazil, Zimbabwe and Mexico, among other developing
countries.  In response to this challenge, the Indian government has
launched an ambitious new program to provide electricity to 100% of households
by 2012.

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[COMMENTARY] Citizen Journalism in Asia

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by Hye Gi Shim

 “To be a journalist is to bear witness,” wrote Roger Cohen of The New York Times, “The rest is no more than ornamentation.” Today, bearing witness is made easier than ever thanks to the revolution in information and communication technology. The power to find, produce, and distribute information has expanded through the Internet and via digital cameras and cell phones leading to a growth of citizen journalists — people without professional training in journalism who produce, augment, or fact-check the news.

 

Asia is home to some of the most wired countries in the world (South Korea, Japan, Taiwan) as well as to some of the most restricted ones (North Korea, Burma, Cambodia). The rising tide of the Internet, however, is lifting all boats. Citizen journalists are sharing opinions about corruption and food safety in Cambodia and China and are influencing presidential elections in South Korea and India, and influencing the outcome of major events.

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