[Fsf-friends] NEWS: Communists push passage of India's patent bill
Frederick Noronha (FN)
fred@bytesforall.org
Wed Mar 23 00:20:36 IST 2005
http://in.news.yahoo.com//050322/43/2kbzd.html
Communists push passage of India's patent bill
By Indo-Asian News Service
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New Delhi, March 22 (IANS) A controversial Patent Amendment Bill, that had
drawn protests even in African countries as it was feared it would lead to
rise in costs of cheaper India-made generic drugs, was passed amid
protests in the lower house of parliament.
Even as the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) pressed for the
bill's reference to a parliamentary panel and staged a walkout, the
government managed to get the support of Left parties and secure the
passage in the Lok Sabha.
"There were five-six areas where we wanted changes. Some safeguards are
also in place on life-savings drugs. We are, therefore, supporting the new
regime," said Prakash Karat, politburo member of the Communist Party of
India-Marxist (CPI-M).
The bill seeks to replace an ordinance promulgated in December to meet the
Jan 1 deadline to recognise product patents, enable the grant of
compulsory licences for export of medicines and modify rules on exclusive
marketing rights.
These provisions are part of India's commitment to the World Trade
Organisation (WTO) under the pact on Trade Related Intellectual Property
Rights, but there were fears mainly over its likely impact on prices of
drugs and medicines, especially those for AIDS.
The patent bill originally had an enabling provision that required poor
nations with insufficient or no manufacturing capacity to grant compulsory
licence to Indian companies for import of drugs to meet emergent public
health situations.
This provision has now been amended to help these least developed
countries, a number of them in Africa. They are no longer required to
issue a compulsory licence to an Indian firm to import patented drugs from
the country.
The Indian government can allow such exports even if the importing country
merely authorises or notifies its requirement.
Other changes relate to areas like definition of inventiveness, new
inventions, royalty and the raising of objections before the grant of a
patent instead of afterwards.
The bill was to have been debated and passed Monday but this was deferred
to Tuesday to enable the government and the left iron out their
differences.
Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said the new legislation would
not affect domestic prices as 97 percent of the drugs in the Indian market
were already off patents, including 350 live-saving essential drugs.
But rights groups said a patient of AIDS in poor countries who pays some
$20 a month for treatment with generic medicine could end up coughing up
$395 for the branded anti-retroviral drugs because of some provisions in
the new legislation.
There were protest marches in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, countries with
large numbers of HIV/AIDS patients, who feared higher cost of drugs
following passage of the patent bill in India.
"The life and health of hundreds of thousands of people globally depends
on the decisions taken in India this week," said Ellen 't Hoen of the
Paris-based Doctors Without Borders, a health and medical aid group.
Hoen, who had been gathering support in India against the new legislation,
said close to 50 percent of an estimated 700,000 HIV patients in poor and
developing countries depend on Indian drugs for treatment.
But the commerce minister said: "The 12 anti retro-viral drugs, mostly
used for AIDS and made in India, cannot be patented. They are pre-1995
inventions. India will continue to manufacture, use and export them
without hindrance."
The bill now goes to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house, before going to the
president for signature for it to become law.
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_/ ____\____ Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Goa
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