EU urged to support India in drug-patent battle[fr][de] 

A legal action by Swiss pharma group Novartis against the Indian government over patented drugs is raising concerns about the potential impact of the case on access to medicines in developing countries.

Referring to a European Parliament resolution of September 2005, humanitarian group Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is urging the EU to react to the Novartis case. It has also launched a 'drop the case'  petition against Novartis.

The resolution  stressed the importance of India with regards to access to medicine for developing countries and calls on the EU to support India in further implementing its intellectual property laws in a manner that will "create an environment that will continue to encourage and facilitate investment by the Indian generic manufacturing industry in providing affordable essential medicines for developing countries".

According to Novartis's statement on the case "the best way to encourage innovation is via respect for intellectual property. We do not believe that denying patent protection for innovative medicines and promoting unlawful generic production and use within developing countries will help patients or increase their access to medical treatment. Indeed, the Indian case demonstrates the opposite. 

"The tension between intellectual property rights and access to medicine is addressed by the Doha declaration offering the instrument of compulsory licenses to tackle public health problems, and Novartis supports the flexibilities offered in this declaration." 

The humanitarian group Médecins Sans Frontières fears that if Novartis wins the case, patents on new derivatives or combinations of existing drugs demonstrating no real innovation will become as easily granted in India as they are in most other countries. This would mean that Indian companies could no longer produce cheap generic drugs, which are essential for access to medicines for people in developing countries. 

The MSF also regrets that the current WTO rules allowing compulsory licensing of drugs for developing countries have not improved those countries' access to medicines. According to MSF, the WTO rules are "prohibitively complex" for the organisation to buy drugs under them and provide no incentive for companies to produce the drugs. The organisation therefore hopes that the WHO's intergovernmental working group on public health, innovation and intellectual property will find a workable solution respecting medical R&D priorities, access to medicines and intellectual property.

The European Parliament resolution (September 2005) on strategic partnership between EU and India points out that "half of the patients who take antiviral medicines in poor countries are using medication produced in India" and "calls on the EU to support India in further implementing its intellectual property laws in a manner that will avoid barriers to the production, marketing and export of essential medicines".