India Assures the US It Will Not Issue Compulsory Licences on Medicines
The government appears bent on decisively abandoning the earlier consensus of adherence to public health goals.
by Amit SenguptaCourtesy: The Wire
( March 16, 2016, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) In what is widely being hailed as an extraordinary victory for the multinational pharmaceutical industry over the Indian government, the US-India Business Council (USIBC), in its submission to the United States Trade Representative (USTR), reports that the Indian government has “privately assured” the industry that it would not use compulsory licences (CLs) for commercial purposes. Since it came to power in 2014, it has been speculated that the NDA government is keen to accommodate objections of the USTR and the US based pharmaceutical industry regarding the use and implementation of a number of health safeguards in domestic laws on intellectual property rights designed to promote affordable access to medicines in India. We now have confirmation that the government is willing to travel the extra mile in order to placate the US and that the Big Pharma’s vicious campaign after the first CL was granted in India has been a success.
Striking at the heart of India’s Patent Act
Mukesh Aghi, president of the USIBC that claims to represent “more than 350 of the largest global companies investing in India”, writes in his submission to the office of the USTR on February 5, 2016, “Overall, the U.S.-India Business Council believes there have been important developments related to the Intellectual Property policy in the last 12 months in India that have paved the way for substantive improvement in India’s IP environment”. He further adds, “…the level and frequency of engagement between the U.S. and Indian governments was encouraging and many have noted that they had not seen this level of engagement with the Government of India before”. Aghi goes on to compliment Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “several public statements reaffirming his commitment to a strong and robust intellectual property regime” and also notes with approval that “(the) Government of India has denied several compulsory license applications”. Particularly disturbing is his assertion that “the Government of India has privately reassured India would not use Compulsory Licenses for commercial purposes”. Curiously, David Hirschmann, the senior vice president of the US Chamber of Commerce, uses exactly the same phrase regarding “private reassurance” in his submission to the USTR.
