Generic medications under threat due to India-EU draft FTA: UN

United Nations, Dec 11 (PTI) The free trade agreement
(FTA) currently under negotiation between India and European
Union threatens the production of generic medicines which will
among others affect HIV patients, a top UN official has said.
"The EU-India draft FTA, as it stands, places trade
interests over human rights," UN Special Rapporteur on the
right to health Anand Grover said on Friday.
He noted that millions in the developing world depend on
India for generic medicines at affordable costs.
Grover said restriction of generic drug production in
India will have a devastating public health impact around the
world and adversely affect the right to health of millions of
patients.
“Though this agreement has taken shape over the course of
many years, the process has suffered from lack of transparency
and lack of consultation and participation,” Grover said.
“At no point has either party voluntarily opened
negotiations to the public, or made available official draft
texts for comment.
This ignores the rights to information and to
participation in the conduct of public affairs, which are
essential dimensions of the right to health, as well as
self-standing rights,” he said.
Grover said available leaked texts of the European
Union–India draft FTA contain provisions to protect and
enforce intellectual property, which are beyond countries’
obligations under TRIPS.
“If the intellectual property provisions remain in the FTA
as drafted, the production of generic medicines in India will
be severely hampered.
As a result, millions of people in India and around the
world may not be able to access to necessary, life-saving and
life-prolonging medicines,” he said.
“People living with HIV would be disproportionately
affected, because the majority of antiretroviral treatments
used to treat HIV around the world are provided through
generic medicines produced in India,” he said.
Among the provisions which jeopardise medication supplies,
data exclusivity provisions in the draft FTA are particularly
concerning, he said.
The introduction of data exclusivity has been shown to
delay and restrict market entry of generic medicines and, as a
result, increase prices and reduce access to medicines,”
Grover said. PTI LKJ
HMI