Demonstration in Paris on Indian patent law

[Guest guest]

The Indian government must postpone amending its patent law

Act Up-Paris Press release – Monday December 6

Global access to medicines is threatened The Indian government must postpone

amending its patent law

Today December 6 2004, French aids activist group Act Up-Paris demonstrated in

front of the Indian consulate in Paris to protest against Indian Industry

Minister Mr Kamal Nath, whose recent policies are threatening global access to

generic medicines. Photographs are available on www.actupparis.org

Minister Nath has announced a revision of the Indian Patents Act aiming at

putting India in compliance with its WTO obligations. But Mr Nath, giving in to

pressure from Washington and Western pharmaceutical companies, is proposing

amendments which, if enacted, will block the manufacture and export of cheap

generic drugs to AIDS-ridden countries in Africa and Asia .

Starting January 1st, the WTO expects India to grant patent monopolies

on medicines to international drug companies. But India plays a unique

role in global access to medicines. According to WHO, India is the world's chief

exporter of cheap generic drugs – primarily to poor nations in Africa and Asia

that have no pharmaceutical capability of their own.

Due to the WTO patent process, several generics have already had to be

withdrawn from Indian pharmacies, such as the generic version of anti-cancer

blockbuster Gleevec, which the patent owner is selling at 57 000 dollars. Early

next year, the top-selling HIV drug Combivir is expected to undergo patent

protection too, even though UN agencies estimates that up to 30% of African AIDS

patients receiving treatment now are using one of the Indian generics of

Combivir, such as Cipla's Duovir or Ranbaxy's Avocom.

In this context, the survival of millions of indigent people with HIV rests on

India's continued ability to make and export cheap generic versions of new,

effective HIV treatments.

In 2001, the WTO recognized developing countries's right to circumvent drug

patents through a mechanism known as « compulsory licensing ». Yet Minister Nath

intends to rig India's compulsory licensing system with unlimited injunctive

relief appeals that the WTO doesn't mandate, and that the drug

companies have used to stifle the issuance of any license.

The activists from Affordable Medicines Treatment Campaign in India, as

well as Health GAP in the US and Act Up in France, demand that Mr Nath

implement a strictly enforceable deadline of one to three months for the review

of a compulsory license request, as well as the withdrawal of injunctive relief

in drug company's rights of appeal. Activists also stress that nothing is

forcing India to amend its patent law in haste :

most other developing countries have managed to exceed the deadlines set by WTO

for complying with its patent norms.

Tomorrow Tuesday December 6, Affordable Medicines Treatment Campaign

organizes a march on Parliament in Delhi to request its amendments be

passed.

Please find pictures of the demo on this link:

http://www.actupparis.org/portfolio2.php?id_document=1510