The All-Ukrainian Union for the Protection of Patients’ Rights and Safety is asking the head office of the Merck Sharp and Home Corp pharmaceutical company to influence its representative office in Ukraine to stop blocking patients’ access to the antifungal generic drug Caspofungin from different manufacturers.
According to the open letter of the patient organization, the text of which is available at Interfax-Ukraine news agency, the Ukrainian representative office of the pharmaceutical company, using the legislative changes adopted after the full-scale invasion by Russia, actually blocked patient access to a number of products by artificially extending the term of its patent, which expired on April 16, 2022.
According to the patients’ information, these include generic drugs Caspofungin-Teva, Caspofungin Acetate manufactured by Gland Pharma Limited, Caspofungin Rompharm manufactured by K.T. Rompharm Company and Kasmig manufactured by Pharmaten UV.
“The people of Ukraine are sincerely grateful to Merck Sharp and Home Corp. for the introduction of humanitarian programs in Ukraine, including the KITRUDA® patient treatment program, but the actions of the company’s Ukrainian representative office to prevent cheaper, generic drugs from entering the market in war conditions is at least unethical,” the organization stressed.
Patients emphasize that “when in Ukraine the ratio of state and patient costs (using cancer patients as an example) for the purchase of medicines is about 20/80, the patients bear the brunt of it”.
“Restricting patients’ access to cheaper generic medicines has now become an issue not only of health, but also of life, because most citizens can no longer afford to buy original medicines at high prices”, the organization believes.
The All-Ukrainian Union for the Protection of Patients’ Rights and Safety initiated an appeal to the Verkhovna Rada to adopt a more unambiguous wording of the law adopted to regulate intellectual property issues after the beginning of a full-scale invasion.
“Given the rather lengthy passage of legislative changes, we ask Merck Sharp & Home Corp. to immediately influence the Ukrainian representative office to stop blocking access to the Ukrainian market of generic medicines, because it leads to additional suffering of patients in war conditions,” the patients stressed.
As reported, the law on the protection of individuals’ interests in the field of intellectual property during martial law, imposed in connection with Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine, was adopted in March 2022. The document extends the validity of all intellectual property rights without exception until the day following the day of termination or cancellation of martial law.
At the same time, experts believe that the norms established by this law led to problems on the pharmaceutical market and made it impossible to introduce and launch production of new drugs.
