Former Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks PH Kurian
A civil servant who issued the country’s first and only compulsory licence (CL) on a kidney cancer drug — paving the way for a less-expensive version of the medicine to come in — PH Kurian (67) , has passed away in Kerala. Colleagues and pro-health groups remember the low-profile man whose judgement under India’s amended Patents Act, was not just high-profile, but also stood the test of intense legal scrutiny in the country and abroad.
Kurian was Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks and his last judgement in 2012 issuing a CL on multinational company Bayer’s kidney cancer drug Nexavar, allowed Hyderabad’s Natco Pharma to make the medicine at a price that was about 97 per cent less, but with a royalty payment to the innovator.
“This is India’s first and only CL,” a government source who did not want to be named told businessline. The judgement was rooted in law, not emotion, the source recalled, and the CL was granted on the grounds that the company had not “worked its patent” and provided the medicine to patients who needed it. Allowing a domestic company to make the drug, improved access and affordability for patients, the source added. The CL has since become a sore point for innovator companies, with foreign governments’ trade departments often raising the use of CL as a point of concern.