Supreme Court initiates suo motu case on need to speed up hearing in matters on life saving drugs

The Supreme Court has registered a suo motu case to curb delays when it comes decisions on cases involving access to life-saving drugs [In Re: Access to Life-Saving Medicines and Judicial Expediency in Article 21 Matters].

A Bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi, and Justice V Mohana issued notice in the matter today.

Pertinently, it also indicated that it may lay down pan-India guidelines toe ensure the timely adjudication of such life-and-liberty matters.

The Supreme Court took note of the issue following a letter highlighting delays in a case before the Kerala High Court concerning access to expensive, patented life-saving breast cancer drugs.

The July 10 letter was sent by Jyotsna Singh and KM Gopakumar, co-conveners of the Working Group on Access to Medicines and Treatment. It highlighted that the litigant before the Kerala High Court, a cancer patient herself, had died months after the petition was filed and while the case was still pending.

Her petition was later converted into a suo motu case by the Kerala High Court in September 2022, given the public interest involved in the matter.

However, the matter has continued to languish, having been heard by eight different judges over the years.

The July 10 letter pointed out that despite being listed at least 57 times, a final decision was yet to be taken in the matter. A copy of this letter was also marked to CJI Kant.

The top court today requested the Kerala High Court to expeditiously give a final decision in the said matter.

The Kerala case remains active on a parallel track. At the heart of the dispute is two life-saving drugs, Ribociclib and Abemaciclib, which had been flagged as too expensive for many cancer patients to afford.

Earlier this week, the High Court asked four expert bodies, including the Drugs Controller General of India, to report on whether the off-patent drug Palbociclib can safely substitute for Ribociclib.

This will have a bearing on whether the Central government needs to invoke its power of compulsory licensing under the Patents Act, 1970, to improve access to the costly medicines. That Kerala High Court case is listed next on August 21.

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