{"id":22388,"date":"2026-03-01T16:48:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T16:48:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/22388\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T16:48:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T16:48:26","slug":"roche-suffers-a-fresh-blow-as-indias-supreme-court-allows-generic-sales-of-its-pricey-rare-disease-drug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/22388\/","title":{"rendered":"Roche suffers a fresh blow as India&#8217;s Supreme Court allows generic sales of its pricey rare disease drug"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a case that was billed as profits versus patients, India\u2019s Supreme Court <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Indian-Supreme-Court-order-on-Roche-v-Natco.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">dismissed a petition<\/a> in which Roche sought to prevent a generic drug maker from selling a lower-cost version of a pricey rare disease medication.<\/p>\n<p>The move came after a lower court <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/pharmalot\/2025\/10\/10\/roche-india-patents-medicines-rare-disease\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">earlier this month upheld a ruling<\/a> that it would be in the public interest to allow Natco Pharma to sell a version of Evrysdi for about $179 a bottle. By comparison, Roche charges $6,982 for its drug, which is used to combat spinal muscular atrophy, a genetic disorder that causes certain muscles to become weak and waste away. One severe form of the disease can lead to death by age 2 if left untreated.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, more than 5,000 people in India are living with the disease and about 3,200 children are born each year with the condition, but fewer than 170 people accessed the drug a year ago, according to advocacy groups. The annual cost for an adult patient is $81,000, but while a patient assistance program exists, availability is restricted to what the Delhi High Court recently described as a \u201cminuscule\u201d number of people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"restricted-text\">STAT+ Exclusive Story<\/p>\n<p class=\"restricted-login\">Already have an account? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/login\/\" data-stat-login=\"\" data-stat-paywall-cta=\"breaker login cta\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Log in<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"restricted-content-breaker-bg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/stat-plus-breaker-bg.png\" alt=\"STAT+\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/stat-plus\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"stat-plus-logo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/wp-content\/themes\/stat\/images\/stat-plus-logo-white.svg\" alt=\"STAT+\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tThis article is exclusive to STAT+ subscribers<br \/>\n\t\t\t\tUnlock this article \u2014 plus in-depth analysis, newsletters, premium events, and news alerts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"restricted-content-breaker-wrapper-cta mobile\">Already have an account? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/login\/\" data-stat-login=\"\" data-stat-paywall-cta=\"breaker login cta mobile\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Log in<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tIndividual plans<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tGroup plans<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/stat-plus\/\" class=\"stat-button view-all\" data-stat-paywall-cta=\"breaker view all plans\" aria-label=\"View All Plans\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">View All Plans<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"restricted-content-text\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tTo read the rest of this story subscribe to STAT+.\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.statnews.com\/stat-plus\/\" class=\"stat-button restricted-button\" data-stat-paywall-cta=\"breaker subscribe cta 1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Subscribe<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a case that was billed as profits versus patients, India\u2019s Supreme Court dismissed a petition in which&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[124],"tags":[14505,337,10825,3714,134,339],"class_list":["post-22388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-roche","tag-drug-pricing","tag-pharmaceuticals","tag-policy","tag-public-health","tag-roche","tag-stat"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}