[Ip-health] PharmaTimes: EU anti-counterfeiting rules "being misused by pharma corporate criminals"

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://www.pharmatimes.com/WorldNews/article.aspx?id=3D15363

EU anti-counterfeiting rules =93being misused by pharma corporate
criminals=94

24 February 2009

European Union initiatives to combat the trade in counterfeit drugs
are being misused, at the behest of =93corporate criminals=94 in the
pharmaceutical industry, to seize life-saving generic drugs which are
legally in transit through Europe on their way to patients in poor
countries, it is claimed.

Following four recent seizures of Indian-made generics bound for
Brazil, Colombia and Peru by customs officials while they were in
passing through the Netherlands, the heads of the World Health
Organisation (WHO) and World Trade Organization (WTO) have been asked
to examine, as a matter of urgency, the extent of the risk posed to
the delivery of generic drugs to developing countries as a result of
the manner in which customs regulations and anti-counterfeiting
measures are currently being applied.

The request comes in letters sent to WHO director-general Margaret
Chan and WTO director-general Pascal Lamy by 16 nongovernmental
organisations (NGOs), who warn the officials that =93these rules, and
many other rules being proposed in a plethora of new trade agreements,
do not protect legitimate sellers and buyers of generic medicines when
those goods move in global trade.=94

The signatories also ask: =93should countries be free to aggressively
enforce patent and other intellectual property claims against goods in
transit, or should goods in transit be protected when they are clearly
intended to markets where their use is legitimate?=94

One of the signatories is Oxfam International, whose head of EU
advocacy, Elise Ford, points to =93what appears to be confusion between
counterfeit medicines that kill people and generic medicines that save
lives,=94 and urges the EU to immediately review and modify its anti-
counterfeiting legislation if it wrongfully allows member states to
seize legal generic medicines that are simply transiting through
Europe. =93It is nonsensical that a regulation intended to save lives
could instead be jeopardizing the ability of doctors and nurses in
developing countries to protect them,=94 she adds.

The international aid agency Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) pointed out
recently that it regularly transports and stores medicines in Europe
on a temporary basis, and the current uncertainty cannot be allowed to
continue, the NGOs stress.

A stronger attack has come from Brook Baker of the HIV/AIDS and human
rights advocacy group Health GAP (Global Access Project), who said the
=93unwarranted=94 Dutch seizure was instigated by DuPont and Merck which
had =93falsely claimed=94 that the medicines posed a threat to their
patent and marketing rights in the Netherlands. =93So far, far too
little attention has been directed at these corporate criminals who
are acting with impunity to thwart lawful generic competition even in
countries of export and import - India and Latin America - where their
patents and marketing rights have no effect,=94 said Mr Baker.

This =93embargo of medicines, at the frivolous behest of drug company
bullies,=94 is not only a direct violation of the Doha Declaration on
the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs)
Agreement and Public Health that prioritizes access to medicines for
all, it is also =93an unconscionable violation of the human right of
access to essential medicines enshrined in multiple international
treaties,=94 he added.

- Early this month, India and Brazil protested to the WTO=92s General
Council over the seizure and
confiscation by Dutch authorities of $500,000-worth of bulk losartan
(Merck & Co=92s antihypertension drug Cozaar) manufactured by Indian
firm Dr Reddy=92s, as it passed through Rotterdam on its way to Brazil.
And late last year, India=92s Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council
(Pharmexcil) reported that consignments from a number of small and
medium-sized Indian bulk drugmakers had recently been seized at ports
in Germany, France, the UK and the Netherlands, all on claims of
intellectual property rights violations.


By Lynne Taylor

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Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
thiru@keionline.org


Tel: +41 22 791 6727
Mobile: +41 76 508 0997