[Ip-health] LiveMint- Indian exporters breathe easy as East African nations reject draft

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Indian exporters breathe easy as East African nations reject draft

The new legislation in East Africa was mainly aimed at stopping
affordable generic drugs from India

C.H. Unnikrishnan. Posted: Sun, Feb 21 2010. 10:12 PM IST

Mumbai: In a move that spells relief for Indian generic drug
manufacturers, at least five East African countries-Uganda, Tanzania,
Rwanda, Burundi and Sudan-have refused to endorse a proposal by the East
African Community (EAC) to introduce an anti-counterfeit products law.

 Photo: Pradeep Gaur/Mint

The law, which could have potentially blocked exports of generic drugs
from India because of a lack of clarity on what is counterfeit, had
worried the Indian drug industry ever since the 2007 draft proposal by
the EAC. East African countries together contribute almost one-fifth of
India's Rs40,000 crore drug exports.

Kenya passed a similar law in 2008 that Uganda had used as a model for
its own draft Bill last year, and which was due for implementation this
year. The Ugandan Bill has now been sent back for review, George Baguma,
a representative of an East African drug industry group, wrote in an
email.

The East African states have "refused to endorse the draft proposal and
have demanded that the definition of generics be what WHO (World Health
Organization) stipulates", said Baguma, who is also a director of
Ugandan generic drug firm Quality Chemicals Industries Ltd.

Mint reported last week about Indian drug manufacturers' concerns over
the impending East African legislation. In the past, some consignments
from Indian drug makers-among them Cipla Ltd, Dr Reddy's Laboratories
Ltd, Ind-Swift Laboratories Ltd, and Lupin Ltd-en route to African and
Latin American countries were stopped at European ports on the grounds
that they either violated patents of multinational companies, or by
being labelled spurious.

The Indian drug industry raised the issue of the East African draft
proposal with the governments involved as well as the World Health
Organization through the Indian government.

"It is true (that) there are 'forces' trying to push it (the
anti-counterfeit Bill), but we are all aware. We have also formed an
association of pharmaceutical manufacturers in the EA region made up of
5 countries," Baguma wrote in an email.

Amar Lulla, joint managing director of Cipla, India's largest generic
drugs exporter, called the development "great news".

"India should take lessons from the East African move and a recent
Brazilian law against multinational drug lobby's conspiracy to block
quality generic drugs," he said.

P.V. Appaji, executive director of Pharmaceutical Export Promotion
Council, or Pharmexcil, a government body under the commerce ministry,
had earlier told Mint that the new legislation in East Africa was mainly
aimed at stopping affordable generic drugs from India, a key supplier of
such drugs to the global market.

Domestic lobby groups for the Indian drug industry such as the Indian
Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) and Indian Drug Manufacturers Association,
as well as individual companies, had also launched awareness programmes
in East Africa to educate patients and non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) there about the effect of laws such as the anit-counterfeit draft
proposal on access to affordable essential medicines. It is currently
also devising a publicity campaign in those countries.

Last year, IPA suggested a seven-point action plan to the Indian
government to discourage East African governments from adopting policies
that could hit drug exports from the nation.

http://www.livemint.com/2010/02/21221234/Indian-exporters-breathe-easy.h
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