Colombia battles world's biggest drugmaker over cost of cancer medicine

Colombia's government is giving pharmaceutical giant Novartis a few weeks to lower prices on a popular cancer drug or see its monopoly on production of the medicine broken and competition thrown open to generic rivals.

Health Minister Alejandro Gaviria's remarks in an interview on Tuesday are the strongest yet in an increasingly public fight with the world's biggest drugmaker that could set a precedent for middle-income countries grappling to contain rising prices for complex drugs.

Memos leaked last week to a nonprofit group, written from the Colombian Embassy in Washington, describe intense lobbying pressure on Colombia, a staunch US ally, from the pharmaceutical industry and its allies in the US Congress.