New Delhi: A ship loaded with medicine from India drops anchor at a European port from where it will sail for Brazil. European officials seize the cargo and later send it back to India. They say the drug is a generic version that violates a patent protected in Europe. A generic drug is cheaper than the patented version.
The seizure has led to a full-blown war of words in three corners of the world—and put the spotlight back on contentious issues such as intellectual property (IP) laws, access to affordable medicines and the use of non-tariff barriers against exports from developing countries.
Patent tussle: India’s ministry of commerce and industry is working out a legal strategy to convince the European Union to drop the provision under which the shipment from Dr Reddy’s Laboratories was seized. Bharath Sai / Mint
The governments of India and Brazil have taken a strong stand against the European Union (EU) for seizing an in-transit shipment of a drug manufactured by Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd (DRL). Brazil’s ministry of external affairs has threatened to take the issue up with the World Trade Organization (WTO) that settles trade disputes between countries. And Brazil, with strong support from India and Bangladesh, at a recent executive board session of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, also succeeded in blocking a controversial resolution backed by the European Commission (EC) and WHO-funded International Medical Product Anti-Counterfeiting Taskforce, or IMPACT. The resolution had been widely criticized for mixing up issues of public health and private IP rights in the context of defining “counterfeit” drugs.
The Indian ministry of commerce and industry is working out a legal strategy to convince the EU to drop the provision under which the DRL shipment was seized. “We plan to approach the WTO if the EU fails to take suitable action,” said G.K. Pillai, secretary, department of commerce.
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On 15 January, Mint had reported that a DRL shipment of the generic version of losartan was seized in transit in the Netherlands. This shipment, on its way to Brazil, was held by the customs authority at Rotterdam, which said it infringed the patent of the original drug—Cozaar. Losartan is not patented in India or Brazil. The patent for Cozaar in the Netherlands is held by DuPont, while US-based pharma multinational Merck and Co. holds the marketing rights.
“We have taken up the issue with a national-level industry body. But we hope the Indian government will take it up at the government-to-government level...as it is an industry-wide problem,” said DRL chief executive G.V. Prasad.