On April 11, 2016, the Colombian Health and Social Protection
office approached Novartis AG regarding a formal price offer as
part of the Administrative Process for the Declaration of Public
Interest.
This request is regarding a compulsory license for a patent
directed to a polymorph of the anti-cancer drug imatinib (marketed
by Novartis as Gleevec/Glivec). The request for the Declaration of
Public Interest, which is the first step towards a compulsory
license in Colombia, was filed by iFarma (representative in
Colombia of Health Action International, HAI), Misión Salud
(Mission Health) and the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (CIMUN)
in November 2014.
The Minister´s communication was made under the
recommendation of the Technical Committee for Declaration of Public
Interest of the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, and a
price of COL$ 140 per milligram of imatinib as the maximum selling
price to the public was bid, which involves a 60 percent discount
over
