Strasbourg, 16/12/2010 (Agence Europe) - The European Union and India have reached an agreement on generic drugs. Brussels has still to amend its regulations.
The EU and India have “in substance” reached an agreement on access to generic medicines, European Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht told the press on Wednesday 15 December during his visit to Ottawa. However, “to put this into practice, we have to modify European regulations or European legislation … and we have to do that through the codecision procedure which obviously takes some time”, he said.
Last year, India and Brazil had threatened to initiate proceedings against the EU at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on the question of access to generic medicines, after customs authorities of several EU member states (Germany, France, the Netherlands) had, in 2008 and 2009, seized generics shipments produced in India on transit through Europe on their way to Brazil. Faced with the possibility of a legal challenge at the WTO, the EU agreed at the end of 2009 to settle its dispute with India amicably. (E.H./transl.jl)