New French move may halt trade in generic medicines

Developing nations such as India and Brazil that are finding their trade in generic medicines disrupted due to confiscation of drugs as part of ‘anti-counterfeit’ initiatives in Europe are in for a bigger problem. A new international ‘anti-counterfeit medicine campaign’ has been kicked off by former French President Jacques Chirac.

A declaration by the Chirac Foundation (promoted by the former French president) against fake medicines on October 12 at Cotonou, Benin, appeals to the international community to treat trade of counterfeit medicines as “breach of peace” and a trade which compromises peaceful relations between states. Indian civil society groups see this as a move to elevate the issue of counterfeit medicines from being an intellectual property problem to an issue within the jurisdiction of the UN Security Council.

“According to Article 39 of the UN Charter, the Security Council shall determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression and shall make recommendations, or decide what measures shall be taken in accordance with Articles 41 and 42, to maintain or restore international peace and security. Article 42 of the UN Charter even empowers UN Security Council to authorize the use of force in case of “breach of peace,” it said

The declaration, made in the presence of about a dozen head of the states and former heads of states, invites “all concerned heads of States and Governments, heads of International Organisations, of Non-Governmental Organisations, and industrial leaders to come to Geneva in 2010 for a global conference aimed at establishing the basis of an International Convention to battle counterfeit medication”.

Civil society groups have sought the central government’s intervention to prevent the move to take anti-counterfeit campaigns into a fresh dimension that can harm genuine trade, as well as public health interests of developing nations. The declaration has come at a time when countries such as India and Brazil are lobbying hard to prevent anti-counterfeit campaigns getting mixed with genuine trade of medicines. India is, in fact, mulling an approach to the dispute redressal forum of the WTO to complain against some of the anti-counterfeit measures adopted EU member-countries.