[Ip-health] Reuters on India Patent Legislation

[Mike Palmedo]

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=healthNews&storyID=2005-03-18T123924Z_01_DEL73061_RTRIDST_0_HEALTH-HEALTH-INDIA-PATENT-DC.XML

India Considers Bill to End Copying of Patented Drugs

Fri Mar 18, 2005 12:39 PM GMT

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's government proposed on Friday to change
the country's patent laws to make it illegal to copy patented drugs, a
practice that has made cheaper medicines available in India and abroad.

The bill proposed to parliament, which also covers other products such
as chemicals, mobile phones and computers, would fulfil India's
commitment to the World Trade Organization to recognize patents from
Jan. 1, 2005.

But the legislation faces huge resistance from the ruling coalition's
communist allies and opposition parties who are concerned about the
availability of affordable drugs in India.

Domestic pharmaceutical companies and aid organizations working in
developing countries have also expressed concerns.

The existing patent law has allowed drug makers to copy patented drugs
as long as they use a different process. It has fostered a strong drug
manufacturing industry in India for more than three decades.

The government argues, however, that patent recognition is an essential
pre-condition for India's drug industry to further its own drug research
and development or attract foreign partners.

The country is already the world's fourth-largest producer of medicines
by volume but ranks only 13th by value, reflecting the very low prices
of products in the local market.

India issued a presidential decree at the end of December but the change
needs to be ratified by parliament within six months.

CONCERNS AT HOME AND OVERSEAS

Y K Hamied, chairman of drug maker Cipla Ltd., argued in a recent
article published by the Indian Drug Manufacturers Association, that the
amended law should make provision to grant compulsory licenses to Indian
manufacturers to prevent monopolies, with the inventor given a suitable
royalty.

He said the government should also have the freedom to grant automatic
licenses to Indian companies for national health programs such as drugs
for cancer, tuberculosis, malaria, asthma, hepatitis and HIV/AIDS.

Another local industry concern is that multinationals will be granted
patents even when they make minor changes to drugs so that their patent
lives get extended, thereby delaying the introduction of generic medicines.

Relief agency Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, has
said it is concerned about the availability of cheap medicines to
patients in developing countries.

"We believe they (the amendments) will drastically restrict, perhaps
even prevent, the production and supply of vital therapies by Indian
pharmaceutical companies to other developing countries," Ellen 't Hoen,
director of policy advocacy and research at MSF, said in a statement
earlier this week.

MSF said about half of the 700,000 people receiving antiretroviral
treatment for HIV/AIDS in developing countries relied on drugs from
Indian generic drug makers.

Indian companies have also developed combination pills from drugs
patented by different companies, which have become popular in HIV/AIDS
treatment in developing countries. This was possible only because Indian
law hitherto had no product patent constraints. (Additional reporting by
Rosemary Arackaparambil)