MUMBAI : India was again put on the 'priority watch list’ in US Special
301 report for intellectual property (IP) violations, which triggered a
sharp response of "unfair US pressure" from health activists. United
States Trade Representative on April 25 released its annual Special 301
Report, placing 36 countries on the 'priority watch list' and 'watch
list’, basically those "trading partners that currently present the most
significant concerns regarding IP rights".
India has been on the
priority watch list reportedly for over 25 years, for "lack of
sufficient measurable improvements to its IP framework that have
negatively affected US right holders".
Stating that Special 301 undermines efforts to lower medicine prices
globally, international medical humanitarian agency, Médecins Sans
Frontières (MSF) said developing countries like India ``once again face
pressures’’ over measures taken to protect access to medicines. This
year too, Special 301 names countries which are using public health
safeguards in intellectual property laws, they added.
“Ironically
the report comes at a time when US is witnessing a campaign in which its
lawmakers and patient advocates are seeking to make medicines more
affordable domestically, and advocating compulsory licences to make
therapies for HIV and other diseases more affordable”, says Leena
Menghaney head-south Asia, MSF.
Not surprisingly, India is
named in the report for the country’s patentability criteria, compulsory
licensing criteria and absence of an additional intellectual property
monopoly-data exclusivity. India’s patent and drug regulatory laws and
policies have helped to protect price-lowering generic competition, so
much so that the country is known as "pharmacy of the developing world"
because it supplies affordable quality generic medicines globally.
Two-thirds
of medicines supplied globally by humanitarian organisations including
MSF, to treat TB, HIV and malaria are generic medicines made in India.
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