SA pharmaceutical company hails court win over multinational giant as victory for local cancer patients

Stephen Grootes interviews Lynne du Toit, Group CEO of Eurolab.

A South African oncology company has won its legal battle against a US university and a multinational pharmaceutical giant, to continue supplying a drug for prostate cancer at a cheaper price.

The win for local cancer patients came when a judge ruled that Eurolab can continue offering the treatment after it was challenged on patent grounds by the University of California and Astellas Pharma.

The complainants approached the Court of the Commissioner of Patents last year, claiming that Eurolab's Enzalutamide, a generic treatment for prostate cancer, was identical to their Xtandi, which potentially infringed their patent.

Enzalutamide has been approved and registered with the SA Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA).

Finding that the contested patent was invalid (on technical grounds), the court dismissed UC and Astellas’ application for an interim interdict.

Dis-Chem was also part of the court challenge, but as Eurolab Group CEO Lynne du Toit explains, that was because the pharmacy chain was specifically approached by the complainants.

"Eurolab distributes its products through every single wholesaler and every career pharmacy out there, so it's not only Dis-Chem. What happened was that Astellas went for them specifically to say they're not allowed to sell the product."

Lynne du Toit, Group CEO - Eurolab

Eurolab's stated mission is to diminish the financial burdens associated with cancer care in South Africa.

"When we registered the product we did recognise that it was still under patent and we approached Astellas for an early launch, which was unsuccessful.  We did launch it at the end of last year, purely because there's a saving to the patient of around R60 000 per annum."

Lynne du Toit, Group CEO - Eurolab

Patients are sometimes on this product for five years, so in total it amounts to a R300 000 saving, du Toit says.

For more detail, listen to the interview audio at the top of the article