Health groups slam passing of Indian patent bill
Health groups slam passing of Indian patent bill
23 Mar 2005 13:22:05 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Kamil Zaheer
NEW DELHI, March 23 (Reuters) - Health groups slammed Indian lawmakers and their communist allies on Wednesday for passing a patents bill, saying it would make drugs more expensive for millions of people suffering from diseases like AIDS.
The lower house of parliament passed the bill on Tuesday by a voice vote, a key step towards meeting India's WTO obligations.
The bill, which will become law once approved by the upper house of parliament, will require drug makers to apply for a licence to the government to manufacture patented drugs. They will also have to pay a royalty to patent owners.
The old law allowed Indian pharmaceutical firms to copy patented drugs as long as they used a different manufacturing process.
"The new patent bill gives more rights to patent holders at the expense of generic drug manufacturers. As a result, life-saving drugs would no longer be produced at affordable prices," global charity campaigner Oxfam said in a statement.
Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) agreed.
"There will be a gradual increase of prices, particularly of new essential drugs," Ellen 't Hoen, director of MSF's policy advocacy and research division, told Reuters.
What health and charity groups are particularly alarmed about is that the new bill does not set a limit for royalty amounts to be paid by Indian firms to patent owners, mainly multinational drug corporations.
"Multinational pharmaceutical firms, which hold patents, could delay issuance of a licence to make a new drug by dragging their feet over what should be the royalty amount," said Leena Menghaney of the Affordable Medicines and Treatment Campaign (India), a health advocacy group.
The government argues that patent recognition is vital for India's booming drug industry to carry out its own research and development to attract foreign partners.
Trade minister Kamal Nath said safeguards in the bill -- pushed by leftist lawmakers -- will ensure prices of essential drugs do not surge in the near future.
India is already the world's fourth-largest maker of medicines by volume but ranks 13th in value, reflecting the low prices of medicines in the local market.
"Because India is one of the world's biggest producers of generic drugs, this law will have a severe knock-on effect on many developing countries which depend on imported generic drugs from India," Oxfam's regional adviser Samar Verma said.
Health groups say among the most affected group will be poor people suffering from HIV/AIDS.
"This is a matter of life and death. People's lives depends of the availability of affordable medicines," Hoen said.
India has more than 5.1 million people living with HIV/AIDS, the second largest number after South Africa. Around 25.4 million people live with the deadly virus in the whole of Africa and just about 3 percent have access to ARV drugs.
Indian drug firms export large quantities of ARV drugs to Africa.
(Additional reporting by Surojit Gupta)
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP144574.htm
23 Mar 2005 13:22:05 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Kamil Zaheer
NEW DELHI, March 23 (Reuters) - Health groups slammed Indian lawmakers and their communist allies on Wednesday for passing a patents bill, saying it would make drugs more expensive for millions of people suffering from diseases like AIDS.
The lower house of parliament passed the bill on Tuesday by a voice vote, a key step towards meeting India's WTO obligations.
The bill, which will become law once approved by the upper house of parliament, will require drug makers to apply for a licence to the government to manufacture patented drugs. They will also have to pay a royalty to patent owners.
The old law allowed Indian pharmaceutical firms to copy patented drugs as long as they used a different manufacturing process.
"The new patent bill gives more rights to patent holders at the expense of generic drug manufacturers. As a result, life-saving drugs would no longer be produced at affordable prices," global charity campaigner Oxfam said in a statement.
Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) agreed.
"There will be a gradual increase of prices, particularly of new essential drugs," Ellen 't Hoen, director of MSF's policy advocacy and research division, told Reuters.
What health and charity groups are particularly alarmed about is that the new bill does not set a limit for royalty amounts to be paid by Indian firms to patent owners, mainly multinational drug corporations.
"Multinational pharmaceutical firms, which hold patents, could delay issuance of a licence to make a new drug by dragging their feet over what should be the royalty amount," said Leena Menghaney of the Affordable Medicines and Treatment Campaign (India), a health advocacy group.
The government argues that patent recognition is vital for India's booming drug industry to carry out its own research and development to attract foreign partners.
Trade minister Kamal Nath said safeguards in the bill -- pushed by leftist lawmakers -- will ensure prices of essential drugs do not surge in the near future.
India is already the world's fourth-largest maker of medicines by volume but ranks 13th in value, reflecting the low prices of medicines in the local market.
"Because India is one of the world's biggest producers of generic drugs, this law will have a severe knock-on effect on many developing countries which depend on imported generic drugs from India," Oxfam's regional adviser Samar Verma said.
Health groups say among the most affected group will be poor people suffering from HIV/AIDS.
"This is a matter of life and death. People's lives depends of the availability of affordable medicines," Hoen said.
India has more than 5.1 million people living with HIV/AIDS, the second largest number after South Africa. Around 25.4 million people live with the deadly virus in the whole of Africa and just about 3 percent have access to ARV drugs.
Indian drug firms export large quantities of ARV drugs to Africa.
(Additional reporting by Surojit Gupta)
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP144574.htm
posted by JimG at 9:39 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home