E-DRUG: President Obama travels to India bearing broken promises on access to medicines
------------------------------------------
PRESS STATEMENT
Health GAP (Global Access Project)
For Immediate Release: November 5 2010
Why Is the U.S. Lobbying for Intellectual Property Rights That Will
Drive Up the Cost of AIDS Drugs?
(Washington DC) President Obama travels today to India for the first
time since his election, arriving on November 6. His trip will feature
high-level meetings organized by powerful U.S. and European corporate
interests, including an address to the U.S.-India Business Council, a
corporate interest group hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that
includes all major multinational pharmaceutical companies among its
members. U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce Suresh Kumar confirmed
last week on the sidelines of a business conference that securing more
restrictive intellectual property rights for U.S. companies was a key
U.S. demand. He said, “[the US is] lobbying to do here, to protect
international property rights, to protect our patents.”[i]
Civil society organizations in the U.S. and India are gravely
concerned that President Obama is seeking policies that will undermine
access to affordable Indian generics. Low cost, generic versions of
AIDS medicines made by Indian manufacturers represent approximately
80% of medicine purchases by the US and other donors—creating hundreds
of millions of dollars in cost savings that would ensure more people
can obtain life saving treatment.[ii] The U.S., through the bilateral
AIDS program PEPFAR, is the largest procurer of generic AIDS medicines.
[iii]
The White House is pressuring India to ratchet up protection of
intellectual property rights, despite the critical role India plays in
keeping global AIDS treatment budgets as low as possible for U.S.
programs. In May 2010, the United States Trade Representative (USTR)
released its annual "Special 301 Report," listing countries that USTR
claims are not sufficiently protecting intellectual property. India
was given "Priority Watch List" status, in part because India's laws
require patented medicines to show actual increased effectiveness—a
public health policy that prevents Big Pharma from “evergreening”
patents. Patent evergreening has been shown to result in increased
medicine prices in the U.S. and Europe, without benefitting patients.
Activists are concerned that influence on the White House by the
pharmaceutical lobby will result in higher medicine prices—at the same
time President Obama is refusing to allocate increased funding for
cash-strapped AIDS programs.
For example, one year before the release of the 2010 Special 301
Report, the US-Indian Business Council also criticized India's law on
the "scope of patentability" of medicines, in a report released in
June 2009. This report was circulated when USTR Ron Kirk traveled to
India for the first time; Kirk attended the meeting where the report
was launched.
The U.S. as well as European countries are also challenging India to
grant monopoly protection to the data that drug companies use to
obtain regulatory approval for a medicine. This measure, called "data
exclusivity," would undermine cost cutting generic competition by
delaying the entry of generics to market. Data exclusivity is not
required by the World Trade Organization—but pharmaceutical companies
have pushed aggressively for it. India's refusal to create a regime of
data exclusivity was another feature of its Special 301 Report listing.
"As a candidate, Obama made a promise in writing to defend the right
of countries to prioritize public health and access to medicines,
above the commercial interests of pharmaceutical companies," said Asia
Russell of Health GAP. "He is breaking that promise. As a result,
India's ability to make low cost, generic versions of newer medicines
is under threat, and U.S.-funded AIDS treatment programs will be
forced to waste money procuring more costly medicines. Obama should
reconsider this wrongheaded position."[iv]
At a public consultation held in Washington, D.C. on October 28 with
the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, experts from
around the world testified that the U.S.’s pressure on India will have
major impact on drug prices throughout the world. “India is often
called the pharmacy to the developing world,” noted Matthew Kavanagh
of Health GAP. “If the U.S. gets its way in India it will mean new
AIDS drugs will again be out of reach for communities most in need in
Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.”
Health GAP has filed a complaint with the U.N., along with public
health groups from throughout the world, alleging the Special 301 List
violates the international right to health as well as WTO rules
requiring multilateral dispute resolution. Full testimony from the
consultation and the complaint is available at www.healthgap.org/UNComplaint
. Other examples of Obama Administration pressure on India include
measures to:
• Finalize a US-India Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) with
provisions that would prevent capital controls. Such controls have
been shown to dampen speculation and currency inflation that in turn
increase the price of its exported medicines. The BIT would also allow
Big Pharma to make unlimited investments aimed at taking over the
Indian generic industry and would allow transnational corporations to
directly sue India for regulations and actions that impact their
expectation of monopoly profits;
• Increase intellectual property enforcement measures that could
interrupt the trade and transit of legitimate generic medicines
destined for foreign countries;
• Garner public support in India for heightened intellectual property
protections and increased enforcement; and to
• Train patent examiners and judges to decide favorably on patent
claims.
[i] Economic Times, “US Lobbying for Strong IPR Regime in India,”
October 26 2010.
[ii] See Holmes, C. et al., “Use of Generic Antiretroviral Agents and
Cost Savings in PEPFAR Treatment Programs,” Journal of the American
Medical Association.
[iii] See Waning, B. et al., "A lifeline to treatment: the role of
Indian generic manufacturers in supplying antiretroviral medicines to
developing countries," Journal of the International AIDS Society,
2010, 13:35, available at http://www.jiasociety.org/content/13/1/35
[iv] “Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe that people in developing
countries living with HIV/AIDS should have access to safe, affordable
generic drugs to treat HIV/AIDS. They will break the stranglehold that
a few big drug and insurance companies have on these life-saving
drugs. They support the rights of sovereign nations to access quality-
assured, low-cost generic medication to meet their pressing public
health needs under the WTO’s Declaration on Trade Related Aspects of
Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).” See: Barack Obama and Joe
Biden: Fighting HIV/AIDS Worldwide: www.barackobama.com/pdf/issues/FactSheetAIDS.pdf
--
For more information contact: Asia Russell +1 267 475 2645, asia@healthgap.org
Matthew Kavanagh +1
202 486 2488, matthew@healthgap.org
Prof. Brook K.
Baker +1 617 259 0760, b.baker@neu.edu
Asia Russell
Health GAP (Global Access Project)
email: asia@healthgap.org
tel: +256 776 574 729 (Uganda)
+256 703 574 729 (Uganda)
+1 267 475 2645 (US)
http://www.healthgap.org