E-DRUG: MSF’s “Europe! HANDS OFF OUR MEDICINE” Campaign
-------------------------------------------------
YOUR VOICE HAS BEEN HEARD – BUT WE’RE NOT THERE YET!!
By being a part of MSF’s “Europe! HANDS OFF OUR MEDICINE” Campaign, you
have helped pressure the European Union into backing down on a key policy
that would have limited access to affordable medicines in developing
countries- medicines MSF relies on to treat people living with HIV, as well
as tuberculosis, malaria and other neglected tropical diseases.
But we’re not there yet, because the EU continues to push further policies
that put pharmaceutical companies’ interests above people’s health in a
free trade agreement being negotiated with India, the ‘pharmacy of the
developing world’.
Please ask your friends to join our campaign to tell Europe: HANDS OFF OUR
MEDICINE! [link - https://action.msf.org/\]
Here’s where things stand now:
THE GOOD NEWS FIRST:
• The EU says it will no longer push for ‘data exclusivity’, one of the
most harmful policies that threatens access to affordable medicines
in a trade agreement with India. Data exclusivity would have blocked
the production and sale of more affordable generic medicines by
giving big pharma a backdoor way to get a monopoly on drugs that
don’t deserve a patent under Indian law. With India now saying that
it won’t accept this policy, data exclusivity is off the negotiating
table, allowing more affordable generic versions of drugs to continue
to be produced.
Over the last several months, there has been an amazing global
mobilisation against the harmful policies in the proposed EU\-India
trade deal, including a demonstration in India in March with more
than 4,000 people living with HIV/AIDS to tell the EU and India they
will not stand by while their lifeline is cut \(see photos and watch
video \[link:
http://www.msfaccess.org/main/access-patents/hands-off-our-medicine-campaign/videos/\]
\)\. The World Health Organization, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
Tuberculosis and Malaria and UNITAID have also voiced their concerns\.
NOW, THE BAD NEWS:
• The EU continues to push several policies in the trade deal with
India that will make it much more difficult for affordable generic
medicines to be produced and exported:
o So-called ‘enforcement’ provisions would allow for legitimate
generic medicines to be seized and considered illegal,
incriminating any actors – even MSF – who handle such
medicines.
o So-called ‘investment’ provisions would allow EU companies in
India to sue the government if they feel their profits are
under threat by any government action. For example, if India
decided to override a medicine patent so that more affordable
generics could be produced, which is fully legal under
international trade rules, a pharmaceutical company could sue
the Indian government over millions of dollars in closed-door
proceedings.
India is currently negotiating free trade agreements with other countries,
some of whom are also pushing for the inclusion of data exclusivity. India
must remain firm in its rejection of this harmful provision, since its
introduction, whether through an agreement with the EU or with other
countries, would have the same disastrous effects on access to medicines.
MSF, together with the other groups that are pushing back against the EU’s
policies, will continue to oppose any efforts to stop the flow of
affordable generic medicines that MSF relies on to treat patients in more
than 60 countries, and that people across the developing world rely on to
stay alive. We will keep you posted as we move forward with this campaign.
Please ask your friends to join our campaign to tell Europe: HANDS OFF OUR
MEDICINE! (link - https://action.msf.org/\]
Laura Lopez Gonzalez, journalist
for MSF Europe
laura.lopez1@gmail