Novartis is a huge multi-national corporation with many divisions and makes billions of dollars in profits annually. The people involved in research and development of new drugs are in no way involved with marketing and pricing. Whereas the researchers have worked for many years to develop Exjade, they have no input on pricing and little if any input about the decision when a product should be brought to the market. We have heard before that Exjade was delayed for many years until the patent for desferal expired, so that Novartis could maximize the profits on desferal production. Once the patent expired, Novartis was given fast track for Exjade and within two years of the expiration of the patent for desferal, Exjade was approved. Is it cynical or merely realistic to believe that Novartis intentionally delayed the oral chelator? This delay cost the lives of many patients who could not tolerate desferal.
There is nothing in any of this history to suggest that the marketing people at Novartis care one bit about the value of human life. There is plenty to suggest that they do care very much about the value of a dollar. This is typical of the giant pharmaceutical companies, which are part of the most profitable industry on earth. How many dangerous drugs have been marketed and sold to patients as safe, when the drug companies buried evidence that would show the dangers? How many patients have died from using various drugs that the companies knew were not safe, but after doing the calculations, it was determined that the profits would exceed any cost for future law suits?
There are many evil people in our world and whether they are making decisions for drug companies or auto companies, who knowingly use inferior parts that they know will cost lives, but are cheaper to produce, the results are the same. The consumer suffers while others get rich off the decisions that have been made which show no regard for human life. Lives have no value to them. The calculations they make include the costs of lawsuits and payouts when they lose these suits, but do not include a single penny for the value of a life. This is how the system works and it makes one realize exactly how courageous the actions of Cipla are to produce drugs and sell them at cost. This flies in the face of the policies of most companies and also many political leaders, such as George Bush, who fervently believes the market should determine medical costs, rather than having the value of human life enter into the calculations. Mr Bush, you're wrong, as usual. Your sick mind is disgusting.
I know I strayed off topic a bit but we really can have no expectation that Novartis will do anything but base their decisions on profits. I have no doubt that the decision by Cipla to market their own version of Exjade had much to do with the decision Novartis made to market Exjade under the name, Asunra, so that they could get a market share established before Cipla was ready to introduce their own version.