EU pact won’t hurt generics.

NEW DELHI: The proposed India-EU trade and investment agreement will not curtail India’s right to produce and export cheap life-saving medicines.

Commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma and EU trade commissioner Karel De Gucht who met recently in Brussels agreed that the treaty will contain this core provision, said a government official. The decision is likely to be announced by European Commission President Jose Barroso and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during the India-EU summit in Brussels later this week.

“The two ministers decided in their meeting on November 30 not to make more stringent the intellectual property rules on production and export of generics,” said the official privy to the ongoing discussions between the two sides.

Generics are copies of drugs patents for which have run out in the country of production and are usually much cheaper prices than the patented medicines.

The decision has been taken amid concerns voiced by civil society organisations worldwide on the possibility of the agreement infringing upon the right of poor to have access to cheap medicines. India’s generics industry, that exports drugs worth about Rs 40,000 crore annually, would have been affected by a decision to change intellectual property laws.

India’s IP regime is compliant with trade-related intellectual property rights, an agreement that is part of the World Trade Organization, but is less stringent than the intellectual property laws of the EU. While under the Trips regime, India has the right to produce generics and export them to countries that do not have capacities to produce cheap drugs, many of these medicines still have valid patents in the EU. Adoption of EU norms could hamper India’s ability to continue to produce and export these life saving drugs.

International medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) launched a global campaign with the punch line “Europe hands off our medicines” in November to stop EU’s attempts to make India commit to its provisions. Another international organisation ITPC on Tuesday urged India and the EU to “preserve and protect” India’s ability to produce and export affordable generic drugs that are the only HIV treatment options for millions of women, men and children.

Taking such concerns into account, the two ministers agreed that the agreement will not stop India from using the flexibilities under Trips.

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com