MSF challenges Pfizer's India patent

Doctors Without Borders wants Pfizer's to allow a cheaper version of its pneumonia vaccine to be made available.

Doctors Without Borders has challenged Pfizer's application for an Indian patent for its pneumonia vaccine.

This would allow cheaper versions to be available to children in poor countries and to humanitarian organisations.

The medical aid group, also known as Medicins Sans Frontieres, said that it challenged Pfizer's patent application to allow Indian manufacturers to make affordable versions of the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine.

The group said the vaccine was one of the world's biggest sellers and that New York-based Pfizer had earned $US6 billion ($A8 billion) from its sales in 2015.

Doctors Without Borders said its decision to oppose Pfizer's patent application comes after "years of fruitless negotiations" to get the company to reduce the price of the drug for use in humanitarian projects.


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Source: AAP


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