Brussels, 09/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - Several NGOs, with Médicins Sans Frontières (MSF) and Oxfam to the fore, denounce the pressure placed on India by the EU to protect its pharmaceutical industry.
Activists gathered in Brussels on Tuesday 9 April ahead of the vital mid-April meeting between Commissioner Karel De Gucht and India's Trade Minister Anand Sharma, when they will put the final touches to an EU/India free-trade agreement (see EUROPE 10822). During a flash mob demonstration outside the European Parliament, MSF and Oxfam activists demanded that the Commission withdraw provisions from the agreement that, they believe, will harm people's access to medicines in India and across the developing world. In a press release, the NGO Oxfam warns: “Eighty percent of medicines used to treat HIV in the developing world come from India and, if the EU succeeds in retaining the harmful provisions that remain in the agreement, it would cut off this lifeline supply for millions of people”. Furthermore, MSF warns, the measures could allow pharmaceutical businesses to take legal action against any party that provides treatment if its action is seen as interfering with their investment. Thus, MSF, for example, could be taken before the courts because it provides generic medicines, the NGO explains. The Commission cannot say it is concerned by the health of the people in developing countries while at the same time imposing on India more binding provisions relating to intellectual property, the activists deplore, urging the European Parliament to refuse those provisions before endorsing the bilateral agreement. (EH/transl.jl)