[Ip-health] EU seizure of another Indian consignment triggers angry debate at WTO meet

[Sangeeta]

EU seizure of another Indian consignment triggers angry debate at WTO meet

Wednesday, November 04, 2009 08:00 IST=A0
Joseph Alexander, New Delhi

Another consignment of Indian generic drug has landed in trouble in Europea=
n
airport notwithstanding the international concern and persistent diplomatic
attempts in the past against such seizures. With India taking strong
exception to the continued attempts by the European Union in this regard, a
recent meeting of the WTO witnessed strong resentment from many nations,
triggering a fresh but stronger debate on TRIPS and access to medicines.

After the European customs authorities seized as many as 17 consignments of
the generic medicines from India enroute to different destinations in
developing over the last one year, a consignment of 1.74 million
anti-platelet tablets (clopidogrel) from a Mumbai-based firm to Venezuela
was stopped by the authorities at the Paris Airport recently, it is learnt.
As in the previous cases, the authorities have cited patent violation for
the seizure of the drugs from Macleods Pharma also.=A0

Interestingly, this comes even after a series of protests from internationa=
l
organizations, diplomatic initiatives from India and strong resentment from
the domestic industry against such measures on `flimsy grounds' on the one
hand, and repeated assurances from the European authorities not to repeat
such steps on the other hand.

The latest assault on the Indian generics prompted India to take strong
stand in the WTO meeting on TRIPS last week and a number of developing
countries too backed the stand while the European Union continued to justif=
y
its customs regulations, it is learnt. The meeting of the Trade-Related
Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Council thus witnessed serious
concern from many members, sparking debate again on the `systematic'
problems in the European regulation on customs (EC 1383/2003).

"We see no guarantee that there will be no seizures of generic drug
consignments in the future as long as Regulation 1383/2003 [which allows
customs agents to stop goods suspected of any IP infringement, not just
trademark infringement] exists in its present form. Underlying the drug
seizures is also a deliberate mixing up of the issue of
spurious/sub-standard drugs =8A with IPRs," according to Indian statement a=
t
the meeting.

The African group also expressed concern on the inefficacy of the system an=
d
the members called for an expeditious solution to the issue and ensure
access to medicines. India also suggested holding informal consultations
with the interested members to increase the efficacy of the system.=A0

In over the last one year, as many as 17 consignments of generics from Indi=
a
to places like Columbia, Peru, Brazil, Nigeria etc had been seized by the
Dutch customs authorities. The seized drugs, which included those for
treating AIDS, Alzheimer's, blood pressure, etc, were from drug makers such
as Cipla, Aurobindo Pharma and Ind-Swift Laboratories. The latest in the
series was seizure of 3.04 million tablets of generic amoxicillin from Dr
Reddy's Lab at Frankfurt airport.


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