---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Terri - Louise Beswick <[email protected]> Date: Mon, Sep 14, 2009 at 2:56 PM Subject: [Ip-health] Times of India- Fake drugs: WHO body rejects MNC argument To:
This is a multi-part message in MIME format. -- [ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ] Fake drugs: WHO body rejects MNC argument Rupali Mukherjee, TNN 12 September 2009, 01:17am IST New Delhi: The World Health Organisation (WHO) regional committee has rejected the counterfeit drugs agenda propagated by developed countries and pharma MNCs, which is already threatening the entry of legitimate generics exported from India. In its annual forum, the south-east Asia region of WHO passed a resolution on September 10 that counterfeit is an intellectual property right (IPR) issue and should not be linked to quality and efficacy of medicines. The resolution takes note of the fact that there is an attempt to confuse intellectual property (IP) enforcement issues with trade and substandard drugs, and also recognises the need to separate IP issues from availability of safe, efficacious and quality medical products (drugs). The annual meeting is a forum of 11 countries including India, Thailand and Indonesia which reviews progress made on health issues and lay down the roadmap for future action and also in preparation for the World Health Assembly. Experts added that the resolution passed here will set the tone for the other regions and WHA which will be held next year. It also asks member states to refrain from IP enforcement activities which compromise access to medicines. This has huge ramifications particularly for India as consignments of generics have been seized while in transit in Netherlands and other European countries, on allegations of IP infringement. This is clearly a signal of rejecting the IP enforcement agenda advocated by pharma MNC body, International Medical Product Anti-Counterfeit Task-force (IMPACT), industry experts say. Countries from the south-east Asia region like India and Thailand had opposed the IMPACT Agenda in the World Health Assembly last year, as well as in the WHOs executive board meeting earlier in January this year. Developing countries have been concerned that IMPACTs focus on policy and legislation on counterfeit drugs will be counter productive and will create barriers to trade in and access to legitimate medicines. Industry body Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance secretary general D G Shah told TOI: "Though it is some improvement over the earlier resolutions, it needs further fine tuning. Falsely labeled or mislabeled have connotations that could include trademark. This becomes more so when one reads mislabeled and substandard together. Instead it should be replaced by mislabeled for ingredients". WHO has urged member states to strengthen their national regulatory framework to ensure access of safe, quality and affordable medicines to all, particularly vulnerable groups. It also wants incorporation of public health safeguards, as mandated by the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS agreement and public health, in the states domestic intellectual property legislation. It further urges states to implement trade and intellectual property policies without constraining policy space on health, including access to safe, efficacious and quality and affordable medical products. Significantly, it adds that WHO does not support IP policies that could potentially undermine availability of safe and affordable medicines. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/business/india-business/Fake-dru gs-WHO-body-rejects-MNC-argument/articleshow/5000946.cms _______________________________________________ Ip-health mailing list [email protected] http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/ip-health -- "The resources of the world are for us all to share. Let us affirm our faith in that common cause" - Dr. Ilina Sen --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
