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International health activists criticise President Obama’s attempts to undermine India's IPR
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Ramesh Shankar, Mumbai
January 29 , 2015
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US President Barack Obama’s comments during the India-US CEO Forum in
New Delhi on Monday January 26 with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi
have drawn harsh criticism from international health activists. The
activists have called upon Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stand
strong against US pressure to change its pro-public health patent laws.
The
activists warned that following President Obama’s advice,
American-style IPR policies could severely damage the Indian economy and
health system, while restricting access to affordable medicines for
patients around the world.
“Indian generics have been essential
to expanding access to medicine around the world,” said Asia Russell,
Health GAP’s Executive Director. “I am based in Uganda, where expanded
access to Indian generics has had a transformative impact on the HIV
epidemic. Around the world, we’ll rely on Indian generics again for
unrestricted access in all low and middle income countries to treatment
of diseases such as hepatitis C, given that Indian firms can make
generic versions of new treatments 1,000 times cheaper than what
multinational pharmaceutical companies charge in first world markets.”
Threatened
by free trade of high-quality and affordable medicines, US-based
pharmaceutical companies and politicians friendly with the industry are
using prominently placed op-eds, large advertisements on Washington,
D.C. buses, and letters to President Obama to spread false
information—claiming India’s rules are not legal or discourage
innovation. The companies have been threatening to withhold investment
if India does not adopt weaker patent laws that would extend
pharmaceutical monopolies and stymie the country’s generic industry.
The
bullying has been far-reaching. The US Trade Representative listed
India on its “priority watch list” in the 2014 Special 301 Watch List,
which is annually published to shame countries with intellectual
property legislation that is not to American businesses and politicians’
liking. As a result, India may face US trade sanctions. Members of
Congress also demanded an investigation into what they call India's "IP
protectionism." This is despite India’s intellectual property laws being
fully in line with international standards, as outlined in World Trade
Organization agreements. The USTR also undertook an out-of-cycle review
of India’s IP policy, and two separate investigations of India’s trade
and investment policies have been undertaken at the US International
Trade Commission because of Pharma complaints to Congress.
“India
fully complies with international law while also making it possible for
billions of people in India and around the world to access life-saving
affordable drugs,” said Matthew Kavanagh, Health GAP’s senior policy
analyst. “Giving US pharmaceutical companies longer monopolies would
help their bottom line—but at the cost of the Indian economy and the
lives of millions of people.” US pharmaceutical companies are also
pressuring India to adopt data exclusivity rules, which in the US make
clinical trial data submitted to public regulators into another right,
creating a monopoly barrier to generic registration and competition even
where there is no patent.
India’s pharmaceutical industry has
been able to flourish because of the country’s pro-public health patent
laws, in which patents are only granted on new medicines or for
significant changes on old medicines. The US, in contrast, regularly
gives out patents on slightly tweaked versions of old medicines that do
not provide enhanced therapeutic benefit, extending monopoly protection
and keeping prices high.
“Rather than shaming India, the US
should learn from the country’s use of intellectual property policy to
promote true innovation and equitable access to medicine,” Baker said.
Already
the Indian government has shown signs that it may bend to the
unrelenting pressure from the US government Last year, the country's
Minister of Commerce and Industry, Nirmala Sitharaman, initiated work on
a “new” IP policy and has now asked the US government for comments on a
draft version of this policy.
“Health activists around the world
are in solidarity with Prime Minister Modi,” Kavanagh said. “We’re
calling on the Indian government not to bend to U.S. pressure. Patients
around the world are relying on it.”
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