EUROPE! HANDS OFF OUR MEDICINE

Millions of people in developing countries rely on affordable generic medicines to stay alive. More than 80% of the medicines used by MSF to treat AIDS across the developing world are produced in India. But the European Commission is now shutting off the tap of affordable medicines by attacking the production, registration, transportation and exportation of generic medicines. People who need these will be left without a lifeline.

Help Médecins Sans Frontières send a message to the European Commission to keep their HANDS OFF OUR MEDICINE!

India's complaint over in-transit generic seizures dropped?

Phil Taylor
08-Oct-2010
Securing Pharma

Anand Sharma India's commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma says India plans to withdraw its dispute over the seizure of Indian-made generic drugs at EU borders filed with the World Trade Organization (WTO), according to reports in the Indian press.

Several articles suggest that Sharma has decided to draw back from the dispute because of commitments by the EU to revisit its rules covering seizure of goods suspected of infringing intellectual property rights (IPR).

There has however been no official statement from any party involved in the dispute resolution procedure indicating that it has been resolved.

The complaint was filed in the wake of around several seizures by EU customs of generic shipments en route from India to markets in Latin America in 2008 and 2009 - allegedly at the request of pharmaceutical brand owners - on the grounds that they were suspected counterfeits and/or violated IPR.

The problem seemed to reside in the differing interpretation of EU Regulation 1383/2003, which allows seizure by border control agencies of products suspected of IPR infringement, and specifically its tenets on goods in transit. Customs in the Netherlands and France, for example, are said to have taken the position that if such a shipment touched ground in the EU, it is considered subject to standard customs procedures and local IPR laws.

The European Commission's Taxation and Customs Union (TAXUD) ran a public consultation on 1383 between March 25 and June 7, 2010, with a view to updating the regulation if required, but as yet has not published the results of the exercise.

India mostly exports off-patent generic drugs under the umbrella of the WTO's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), which was passed to harmonise IPR standards and enforcement, as well as facilitate access to essential medicines in developing countries.

If the WTO dispute remains unresolved, the next stage would be formation of a WTO panel specifically to look into the complaint.

Meanwhile EU claims the Drug seizure dispute with India not resolved. Apparently there was some progress but negotiations seem to have broken down.

See also "Freer" trade may hurt access to India generic drugs

*UNITAID says 80 percent of its AIDS drugs come from India
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Brazil and India have requested WTO consultations on the generic drug seizures issue.

Brazil's request is here. India's request is here.

For background, SpicyIP has a number of posts on the issue here;