Herceptin Should Be Made Accessible

Kalyani Menon Sen, activist and feminist researcher discusses with Newsclick the importance of access to drugs, specially in certain life-threatening diseases. Today, a lot of women are getting affected with breast cancer. According to the national cancer registry, over 1,00,000 women in India develop breast cancer every year. Herceptin is a drug which is useful in the most aggressive form of the cancer, which typically afflicts younger patients. But its cost is prohibitive for almost any Indian patient to afford. Given the drug’s important public health benefit, Kalyani Menon Sen feels that Indian government should issue compulsory license and make the drug accessible to a large number of women.