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Glivec 400mg - is it going to get cheaper and more readily available?

I've heard that the patent for Glivec may expire soon and that it may become cheaper and more readily available fairly soon.  Is this true and if so, when?

Louise

Hi Louise.. the patent for imatinib runs out in 2015 -for USA and 2016 for Europe. That means that other companies can then produce it and charge whatever price they want.

best wishes,

Sandy

I spoke to a specialist recently who was involved in the development of the drug and he doesnt expect the price to come down too much. It is a very difficult drug to manufacture so the costs are quite high...its not as if Novartis are raking it in to pay back R&D costs, yes that will be one element, but ongoing manufacturing costs are the overwhelming part of the make up.

Not so sure about this - I think there's probably an element of PR in the comment you heard. It may be more difficult to make than some but there will still be a significant difference in price if generic imatinib reaches the market as the clinical trial and regulatory costs while smaller than many drugs are still significant. There are Indian companies already making generic imatinib and I believe one is lining up to enter the US market in 2015 when the US patent expires. There's no guarantee that they can enter at that point but as far as I am aware, generic companies are already making it. According to info on the net, the price of generic imatinib is half or less of the real thing.

Thanks for that Sandy.

Louise

Thanks for your reply.

Louise

Thanks for your reply Richard.

Louise

Hi All,

The price of generic imatinib 400mg in india is around Rs300 (i.e comes around $6 US Dollars). The actual gleevec comes around $60 here. Since the patent doesn't apply in India many manufacturers are giving imatinib for less cost.

This generic drugs are only used in india and even at the fraction of cost it is not affordable to people here since most medical insurances do not cover cost of the drug.

The patent expiration would surely bring down the prices on imatinib.

by the way, Is the imatinib medication covered in UK, AUS and other countries??

Regards
Refaye

Hi my name is jamshaid shoukat i just see that the price of the subject medicine is very cheap in india i just want to know is the price of this tablet is Rs. 300 in India and if i want to buy what is the procedure.

thanks

As I said before - let's wait and see what happens in South Africa in 2013.