Foreign Trade Agreements And Access To Medicine

Abstract

The issue of access to affordable medicine is seeing some interesting times in India, especially in the context of intellectual property. A few events close on the heels of one another, viz., granting of first compulsory license over So rafenib, a drug for cancer by Intellectual Property Appellate Board, [1] followed by the Supreme Court judgment rejecting plea of Novartis to grant patent protection to its anti-cancer drug sold in the name of Glivec or Gleevec, India being put again on the US priority watch list in the latest USTR Special 301 Report, May 2013 for allegedly tweaking with uniform patent standards to the disadvantage of their pharmaceutical companies and not the least, the EU India BTIA negotiations reflect intense turbulence and shifting of fault lines in the access to medicine debate. While issues concerning the Novartis judgment and compulsory licensing are being well discussed, our concern for EU-India negotiations should be no less. This article seeks to draw attention to issues incorporated in the negotiation document between EU and India and their impact on access to affordable medicine, if accepted. [2] WTO's trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights or TRIPS - establishing a universal minimum protection for intellectual property-has been adopted in the domestic Intellectual property regimes of most countries of the world. However, perception with respect to its efficacy varies. For developed countries who still are the leading innovators, TRIPS was only a battle half won as their demand for some of the more stringent provisions of protection remained unheeded.On the other hand, according to the developing and least developed countries, TRIPS laid down stringent conditions of protection which could prove stilling for local innovation. The debate on access to medicine is inextricably intertwined to these counter views. [3] [1] Bayer Corp. v. Union of India , Order No. 100/2009 (Intellectual Property Appellate Board, Mar. 4, 2013), http://www.ipab.tn.nic.in/Orders/100-2009.htm (last visited Sept. 28, 2026). [2] Novartis AG v. Union of India , (2013) 6 SCC 1, http://judis.nic.in/supremecourt/imgs1.aspx?filename=40212 . [3] U.S. Trade Pressure on India Drug Patents Threatens Access to Life-Saving Medicines: Report , HuffPost (May 1, 2013), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/01/india-us-drugs-trade_n_3196458.html