Big Pharma chooses the path of collaboration with emerging countries.
Last year there was the great rift: the pharmaceutical giant Novartis sued an Indian company for distributing one of its anticancer drugs after having slightly changed the formula, and all the big names in the sector pointed the finger at the lack of patent protection guaranteed from emerging countries. Today, however, the majority of those same international giants seem to prefer the path of collaboration. Thus the American Merck and the Indian Ranbaxy, market leader in your country for the production of generic drugs, have signed an agreement which will lead them to develop together a new preparation for infectious diseases. The Indian researchers will intervene in the initial phase of the tests, while the final stages of the experimentation will be the prerogative of the American company. Ranbaxy also has experimental agreements with GlaxoSmithKline, while Eli Lilly in turn has chosen the path of collaboration with an Indian company. The IMF cuts Turkey's growth estimates. The International Monetary Fund yesterday revised 2008 Turkish GDP growth to 4%, while inflation is expected to remain below 10%. Ankara's GDP grew by 4.5% in 2007, against 6.9% in 2006 and an average of 7.2% over the past five years. In the last quarter of 2007, Ankara's economy grew by just 3.4%, below the estimated 5%. Now the IMF is revising its growth estimates for the Bosphorus economy again downwards. The Turkish government cut the primary surplus from 4.2% to 3.5% to stimulate the economy. Furthermore, on April 4, S&P's downgraded the outlook for the debt rating from stable to negative, motivating the decision with the "dense tension" political framework. US investment bank Morgan Stanley also downgraded Turkey's equity funds to "weight equal to market" such as Citigroup, which it reduced to neutral from overweight. Credit card insolvencies also doubled, going from 55,000 in the first two months of 2007 to over 100,000 in the same period of 2008. Il Sole 24 Ore of 05/13/2008 MONDO p. 27
