[Ip-health] Bloomberg: Brazil Protests Seizure of Dr. Reddy's Drugs n the Netherlands

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=3D20601091&sid=3DaOUxZ.aZKnbA&refer=
=3Dindia#

Brazil Protests Seizure of Dr. Reddy=92s Drugs in the Netherlands


By Joshua Goodman

Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Brazil protested the seizure in the Netherlands
of shipments from Dr. Reddy=92s Laboratories Ltd., India=92s second-
biggest drugmaker.

Customs authorities in Rotterdam seized shipments of the generic drug
Losartan, used to treat high blood pressure, while in transit to
Brazil, the South American nation=92s foreign ministry said in a
statement.

Authorities were acting on the request of an unnamed company that
allegedly has patent rights over the drug in the Netherlands, the
foreign ministry said. Losartan can be imported freely in Brazil.

=93The decision by Dutch authorities to seize a strategic supply for the
public health system of a developing country, exported according to
international norms, signals a grave step backward in the universal
access to medicines,=94 the ministry said in the statement.

Officials at the Netherlands embassy in Brazil weren=92t immediately
available to comment after normal business hours.

The Brazil foreign ministry said the seizure =93raises doubts about the
commitment of European countries to help people in developing
countries gain access to medicines.=94

Brazil plans to complain to the World Health Organization in Geneva
and possibly to the World Trade Organization.

The drug shipment has been returned to India, the foreign ministry said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Joshua Goodman in Rio de
Janeiro jgoodman19@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 21, 2009 20:05 EST

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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