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| MNCs working against Indian drug firms: Sharma to WIPO |
| Press Trust of India / New Delhi Nov 11, 2009, 17:42 IST |
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India today complained to the UN intellectual property rights body, WIPO, that some multinational firms have launched campaign against country's pharmaceutical industry, which has broken their "cartel" in the generic drugs.
"We know how the campaign was there.(They) still continue to misinform, mislead and confuse when it comes to the Indian generics, which have brought a major change in the world," Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma informed Francis Gurry, the Director General of Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), here.
Several consignments of off-patent generic drugs by Indian firms have been seized in the recent past in Europe on way to destinations like Brazil and some African nations.
While these are off-patent drugs, some of the European nations have confiscated alleging they violated their IPRs.
"There was a time when there was suffocating stranglehold of multinational drug cartels in the anti-retrovial drugs for HIV AIDS," Sharma said.
It was the Indian pharmaceutical firms which have brought down the annual HIV AIDS treatment cost from $11,000 to $400, he said at a meeting jointly organised by the ministry, WIPO and the Ficci.
Africa and Latin America are major markets for India's low cost drugs used for treatment of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. The two continents account for around 15 per cent of India's total pharmaceutical exports of about Rs 40,000 crore.
Sharma further said India has a very strong intellectual property regime and the law covers the entire gamut, including copyrights, trademarks and geographical indicators.
"Its not only that we have IPR regime but we also have a robust institutional and administrative mechanism to implement the law," Sharma said. He said actions are being taken against those who violate IPRs.
Sharma also India has finalised an agreement on traditional knowledge digital library (TKDL) with the US.
"I hope we would be able to have it signed soon," Sharma said adding India was also negotiating agreements on it with several countries.
TKDL provides information on traditional knowledge existing in the country, in languages and format understandable by patent examiners at International Patent Offices (IPOs). The information is available in English, German, French, Japanese and Spanish.
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