Dr Brian Druker coinventor praises India's supreme court decision

The pharma chums argument that denying patents to drug companies and eating into their profits will inhibit research investment into future wonder drugs was knocked down easily in the U.S, particular in the case of Gleevec. The acclaimed drug, considered a magic bullet for leukemia, was actually developed jointly by Dr Brian Druker, director of the Oregon Health and Science University Knight Cancer Institute, in collaboration with Nicholas Lydon of Novartis. In that sense, it had some public funding.

Druker himself welcomed the Indian Supreme Court ruling in an interview with the Times of India, but with a caveat: the price of medications should not be restricted to the extent that it inhibits future investment in new drugs. At the same time, he also criticized the pharma majors' predatory pricing and the enormous profits they made on many blockbuster drugs.