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No Data Exclusivity Clauses in Trade Pacts,
Assures India
The article below was published in the South-North Development Monitor
(SUNS) #7186 dated 8 July 2011. We thank SUNS for permission to
re-distribute this article.
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No Data Exclusivity Clauses in Trade Pacts,
Assures India
Published in SUNS #7186 dated 8 July 2011
Geneva, 7 Jul (Kanaga Raja) -- The Commerce and Industry Minister of
India, Mr Anand Sharma, has given assurances that India will reject
any efforts to include "data exclusivity" clauses in bilateral
trade agreements.
In a press statement, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
(UNAIDS) has welcomed these assurances given by the Indian Minister
at a meeting between him and UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe
that was held on 6 July at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
"We reject data exclusivity clauses in free trade agreements,"
said Mr Sharma.
(Civil society groups have been warning against efforts to include data
exclusivity clauses in free trade agreements, particularly in the negotiations
on the European Union-India free trade agreement.)
According to the UNAIDS press statement, in welcoming the Indian Minister's
assurance, Mr Sidibe said: "Millions of people will die if India
cannot produce generic antiretroviral drugs, and Africa
will be the most affected. For me, it is an issue of life or death."
UNAIDS said that India's
pharmaceutical industry produces more than 85% of the first-line antiretroviral
drugs used to treat people living with HIV.
The cost of the least expensive first generation treatment regimen has
dropped to less than US$86 per patient per year.
But as increasing numbers of people move towards more efficacious and
tolerable first-line treatment, drug prices could double compared to
first-generation regimens, it added.
In addition, said the UNAIDS press statement, as patients develop drug
resistance and require more expensive and patent-protected second- and
third-line antiretroviral medicines, some projections indicate treatment
costs escalating by as much as twenty-fold.
"The Government of India reaffirms its full commitment to ensure
that quality generic medicines, including antiretroviral drugs, are
seamlessly available, and to make them available to all countries,"
said Mr Sharma.
"India
will also use the flexibilities allowed under TRIPS, including the use
of compulsory licensing, to ensure that people living with HIV have
access to all life-saving medicines," the Indian Minister stressed.
"India, together
with Brazil, South Africa,
China and Russia,
must forge an alliance with other high-income countries to ensure that
no single person in the world dies because they could not afford to
buy life-saving medicines or health care," Mr Sidibe said.
According to the UNAIDS press statement, an estimated 15 million people
are eligible for antiretroviral treatment in low- and middle-income
countries, and about 6.6 million people have access to HIV treatment.
The Government of India provides free antiretroviral treatment to more
than 420,000 people living with HIV in India, UNAIDS added.
Current treatment approaches are not sufficient to provide access to
all who need it. UNAIDS and other partners advocate for Treatment 2.0
- a framework that seeks to simplify the way treatment is currently
provided.
For this approach to succeed, said the UNAIDS press statement, TRIPS
flexibilities as well as innovation and protection of intellectual property
rights will play an important role for treatment access in the future.
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