Follow the lead of previous govt, civil society urges Centre

International humanitarian aid organisation Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) has urged Centre to resist pressure to undermine India's renowned generic drugs' industry during the upcoming round of negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

"At least three countries- Japan, South Korea and New Zealand- are pressing India and China to agree to intellectual property (IP) rights provisions that would see prices of certain life-saving drugs go up exponentially," Shailly Gupta, Advocacy & Communication Officer at MSF India's Access Campaign, told National Herald.

The 19th round of the proposed 16-member regional trade bloc, RCEP, will commence at Hyderabad's International Convention Centre on Monday. Ten ASEAN members (Brunei, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Singapore, the Philippines and Laos) and six other countries which have an FTA with the ASEAN bloc (India, China, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia) are part of the grouping.

MSF, along with other civil society organisations, urged the current government to "stay firm" on its stand and tell the three countries that inclusion of the said IP provisions would adversely affect tens of lakhs of Indian patients who rely on cheap drugs.

Noting that India had been “through this before,”Loon Gangte, International Treatment Preparedness Coalition–South Asia, said in a press release, “India has been through this before with the EU-India trade agreement where similarly harmful provisions undermining access to medicines were either withdrawn or dropped.”

"We are hoping that India’s negotiators make it explicitly clear to other parties that we wouldn't include any IP provisions that may affect India's generic drugs industry," Gupta told NH.

She added that India had failed so far to get the proposed IP protection off the negotiating table and hoped that India’s negotiators would come out with reassuring statement out of the Hyderabad round of negotiations.

"A major problem with these trade negotiations is that they are highly secretive. What we want the government to do is to make an announcement that such damaging IP provisions are off the table," Gupta said.

A contentious provision being proposed by countries like Japan and South Korea is “data exclusivity”, which would block other manufacturers from the market for at least five years by restricting regulatory approval that is needed to prescribe or procure generic medicines, an MSF press release informed.

More than 20 lakh Indians to be affected

More than 10 lakh Indians are affected by HIV and rely on cheap drugs, according to various estimates. Gupta reckons that another 10 lakh will be added to the list in coming years.

MSF India fears that the ceding to demands of RCEP member states may disrupt India's thriving generic drugs' industry, which has of late been witnessing lower prices and increased competition due to entry of new players.

"The cost of medical upkeep of HIV patients has decreased from $350 a year in 2001 to around $100 a year at present. But HIV is a continuously evolving virus and develops immunity to medicines pretty fast, so there is a continuous need for innovation. The RCEP negotiations threaten that," she said.

India is major exported of generic drugs to Africa, Latin America, South-East Asia and even to the US market, she informed.

“We rely on affordable medicines made in India to treat people in our medical programmes in more than 60 countries around the world, who are living with diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis and hepatitis C,” Leena Menghaney, South Asia Head for MSF’s Access Campaign, said in a statement on Friday.

Protests planned

Various civil society, trade and farmers' organisations will converge on Hyderabad to protest some proposed provisions of the RCEP, according to People's Resistance Forum, an umbrella group claiming to represent interests of stakeholders who have apparently been left out of negotiations.

According to news reports, reduction in agricultural tariffs that would hit farmers, exposure to foreign litigation, besides impact on the generic drugs industry are some of the concerns that group has flagged.

A rally, which will see participation from civil society groups, NGOs, trade unions and farmers, is planned on Monday. According to reports, participants will be dressed in black as mark of protest against holding the RCEP negotiations in secrecy.