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;

EU raids drugs companies

Pharmaceutical firms suspected of breaching antitrust rules

Richard Wachman
The Guardian
6 October 2009 18.03

European Union regulators today raided several drugmakers on suspicion that the companies may have breached EU antitrust rules. Inspections were carried out at half a dozen offices in several countries and documents seized.

The raids come after a report from the European commission in the summer found that generic drugmakers faced delays in getting medicines to market, sometimes because of stalling tactics employed by big pharmaceutical companies.

Groups selling lucrative patented drugs were accused of trying to protect patents for as long as possible, sometimes deploying "phoney" litigation, as well as other questionable practices, according to lawyers.

A spokesman for the EC said it had reason to believe that certain companies may have infringed EU competition rules that prohibit restrictive business techniques. Firms are also suspected of abusing their dominant market position.

France's Sanofi-aventis confirmed that it had been raided and that it was collaborating with EU antitrust officials, although there is no suggestion that it is one of the guilty parties. An industry source said three other drugmakers were believed to have been inspected.

British drugmakers GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca said they were not aware of any raids on their sites.

In July, the EC said that it would turn the spotlight on individual drugs companies after it published a report claiming that generic drugs were being delayed and costs to consumers increased unnecessarily.

The commission found that delays cost EU citizens 20% in extra spending. Pharmaceutical companies were singled out for deploying a variety of delaying tactics to protect patents, and in some cases, reaching restrictive settlement agreements out of court.

The European court of justice today told the EC to review a decision that prevented GlaxoSmithKline from setting higher prices in Spain to offset the effect of exceptionally ferocious competition.