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Published on Wednesday, March 23, 2005 by OneWorld.net by Abid Aslam =A0 WASHINGTON -- Indian lawmakers adopted a new patent law Tuesday that would = ban domestic firms from making low-cost generic versions of patented drugs. Hea= lth campaigners warned that as a consequence, millions of people around the wor= ld would be denied access to cheap life-saving medicines. The Lok Sabha, parliament's lower house, approved the legislation after the= government agreed to demands from leftist allies and made several last-minute amendmen= ts to placate concerns that the new law would help multinational companies gain d= ominance and push up prices in the Indian market. International aid groups, however, said the law would restrict the ability = of Indian companies to supply generic drugs to Africa and other poor regions. With re= spect to AIDS alone, the effect would be to threaten the survival of hundreds of thousand= s of current patients and millions more who had hoped the medicines would become more wi= dely available, not less. ''The patent law will cut the lifeline to other countries,'' said Ellen 't = Hoen, policy advocacy and research director at Doctors Without Borders' campaign for access to es= sential medicines. The measure was expected to become law later this week after being cleared = by the upper house. It stemmed from India's membership of the World Trade Organization (= WTO), which enhances the South Asian powerhouse's participation in global commerce but = requires the country to tighten patent rules for its $5 billion pharmaceutical industry.= It would replace a long standing policy of allowing local firms to make gen= eric versions of Western drugs so long as these involved modified production processes. This= approach helped to foster a strong drug manufacturing industry in India for more tha= n three decades and turned the country into a leading supplier of inexpensive pharm= aceuticals to the rest of the world. India exports two-thirds of its pharmaceutical output to developing countri= es, according to the World Health Organization. Generic competition fueled by Indian drug= s has been largely responsible for reducing the prices of antiretroviral drugs used to= treat AIDS, in some cases by as much as 98 percent. ''We are deeply disturbed and concerned that you are failing to listen to t= he voices of your people who have entrusted you with their welfare, not to mention the poor i= n the developing world who rely on affordable medicine from India,'' Hoen of Pari= s-based Doctors Without Borders and representatives from other aid groups said in a= letter to Sonia Gandhi, leader of the governing Congress Party. The new measure empowers the government to override a patent on a medicine = if such a large number of people need it and cannot afford it that this constitutes a= national emergency. Despite having some 5.1 million people infected with the AIDS-causing HIV v= irus--the second largest number after South Africa--the disease is not seen as a nati= onal emergency and Indian companies will therefore no longer be allowed to copy = new inventions in AIDS treatment, said Doctors Without Borders, also known by i= ts French initials MSF. In the case of AIDS, Indian modifications have revolutionized treatment. We= stern cocktails of up to three separate drugs have been combined into one pill, for example= , reducing costs and making it easier for poor people to keep up with treatment under = difficult circumstances. Of the 700,000 people receiving antiretroviral treatment in developing coun= tries, half rely on Indian generics. MSF said it treats 25,000 people in 27 countries and ro= ughly 70 percent of these patients use Indian-made drugs. Before generic drugs became widely available in 2001, similar treatments co= st more than $10,000 per patient per year--40 times more than the $250 average price of = such treatment in MSF programs today. Groups voicing concern about the supply of cheap drugs have run the gamut f= rom international aid agencies like ActionAid and Oxfam and health campaigners = like Health GAP (Global Access Project) to regional organizations like Washington-based= Africa Action, a group more accustomed to working on U.S. policy toward the continent. Brazil, Canada, China, Singapore, and South Africa are among other countrie= s producing generic drugs. India is the biggest producer, however, and its companies ma= ke not only the finished tablet forms of drugs. They also make generic versions of the = raw ingredients and chemicals used in the drugs' manufacture. Many of these they actually e= xport to global pharmaceutical companies to produce their brand-name versions. India's new law is supposed to bring it in line with a WTO agreement called= TRIPS, for ''trade related aspects of intellectual property rights.'' Since 2003, TRIPS has contained a waiver that allows ''compulsory licenses'= ' to be issued to override specific patent restrictions. With these, countries that suffer a = serious health crisis but are unable to produce drugs at home can import generics from other nati= ons. Some governments have been reluctant to enforce the licenses, however, for fear = of jeopardizing the supply of aid and investment from wealthy nations. Major pharmaceutical companies can decide to issue voluntary licenses, bypa= ssing the TRIPS system and making it easier for their drugs to be produced genericall= y. In 2001, 39 major drug companies tried to prosecute the South African gover= nment for passing a law which they said violated TRIPS regulations by easing rules fo= r producing and importing generics. Following immense pressure from the South African government, the European = Parliament, and an international petition, the global firms backed down. At least one o= f them, GlaxoSmithKline, subsequently granted a voluntary license to a major South = African generics producer. Copyright =A9 2005 OneWorld.net ### To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
