E-DRUG: Kenya sees cure in Indian generics now
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{Thank you Philippa, This is reassuring news. Moderator]
Dear E-druggers
You may be interested to see this.
Philippa Saunders
Essential Drugs Program
UK
"Philippa Saunders" <edp@gn.apc.org>
Economic times June 3
NEW DELHI: The Kenyan health ministry has conceded that the country should
not have passed the anti-counterfeit law last year and said it would try and
make changes to ensure that imports of legitimate generics were not
affected.
This marks an important victory in Indias sustained efforts in Africa to
counter propaganda by multinational pharma companies against cheap generic
drugs.
The Kenyan health ministry has revealed at the recent WHO health assembly
that the anti-counterfeit legislation passed by the country was pushed by
its industry ministry and it had no clue about its ramifications, a commerce
department official told ET, adding that it said that it will try to make
changes to ensure that generics are not affected. The government now plans
to focus on countries such as Uganda, Nigeria, Zambia and Malawai that are
planning similar anti-counterfeit legislation. Generics are copies of drugs
that do not have patent protection in India, allowing any manufacturer to
produce them. The competition among manufacturers helps bring down prices
substantially. India is one of the worlds largest producers of generics with
yearly exports of an estimated Rs 30,000 crore, a sixth of which goes to
Africa.
Kenyas anti-counterfeit law could render genuine generics imported from
countries like India illegal if a company holding a patent to the
formulation in any country files a complaint.
This could happen despite the fact that the drug is off-patent in the
exporting countries. Kenya now seems to have realised that the legislation
could hamper access to cheap life saving drugs for its population. The
international intellectual property agreement (Trips) under the WTO allows
exports of generics to countries with insufficient production capacities on
public health grounds even if patents are held by companies in other parts
of the world.
The commerce department had earlier written to the Kenyan government
pointing out the downsides of the anti-counterfeit legislation and had also
held several meetings at the official level on the issue. Indian officials
have also met government representatives from other countries that are
planning similar legislation including Uganda, Nigeria and Tanzania to
sensitise them about the importance of generics for the poor.
We have to intensify our efforts in such countries, the official said.
One of the reasons behind anti-counterfeit legislation being considered in a
number of African countries is an attempt by global pharma companies to
create confusion between counterfeits (genuine drugs that are made in
violation of patents) and fake or spurious drugs that are harmful, the
official said.
Generics eat into the profits of large pharma companies holding patents to
those medicines in the Western countries as they cant make inroads into poor
countries that prefer to buy the cheap yet effective copies of the original
drugs.