Gilead Sciences met the minister of state for commerce and industry Nirmala Sitharaman yesterday. The delegation informed the Minister about signing of non-exclusive licensing agreements with seven India based generic pharmaceutical manufacturers allowing the companies- Cadila Healthcare, Cipla, Hetero Labs, Mylan Laboratories, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Sequent Scientific and Strides Arcolab to manufacture Sofosbuvir and the investigational single tablet regimen of ledipasvir, sofosbuvir for distribution in 91 developing countries.

These countries account for 54% of the total global infected population of Hepatitis C. The Gilead team also briefed the Minister about the fact that no price limitations have been fixed in the said licensing deal in order to ensure adequate competition amongst the licencees resulting in competitive prices for the patients.

Sitharaman welcomed the development as this will result in expansion of access of these drugs to many more patients. She emphasized that pharmaceutical industry has a very pronounced human aspect and such a sector cannot be governed by the commercial considerations alone. She also said that India respects the intellectual property in new drugs but also emphasized that complete technology transfer is important to enhance the country's manufacturing capabilities in this critical area.

The minister further said that India appreciates the value of innovation and partnerships to improve access of medicines through transparent, non restrictive voluntary licensing and hope that it will help in technology transfer in front-end technologies in healthcare.

The delegation informed the minister that under the licensing agreements, the Indian companies receive a technology transfer of the Gilead manufacturing process to enable them to scale up production as quickly as possible.