WHO expresses concern over Indian law on generic drugs

GENEVA, Thursday (AFP,BBC) The World Health Organisation (WHO) voiced concern over a new law in India banning the copying of patented medicines which the UN body fears could hit the provision of cheaper generic drugs to poor countries.

"It has worried us for a while. We have followed the debate very closely," the WHO's deputy director for the department of essential medicines German Velasquez told AFP.

He said the Geneva-based UN health body had recently written to the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the subject."We recalled the importance of the manufacture in India of generic medicines affects many developing countries," he added.

And he said they had insisted that "the country uses to the maximum the flexibility offered" by an August 2003 agreement by members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) dealing with the export of generic medicines to poor countries hit by health epidemics such as AIDS.

The Indian parliament's upper house on Wednesday approved a controversial drug patents bill, which critics warn could deprive millions of poor people of low-cost, life-saving drugs.

The approval paves the way for the bill, which prohibits domestic firms from copying low-cost generic versions of patented drugs, to become law.

The Indian law aims to bring the country into conformity with the WTO accord.Meanwhile International aid groups have strongly criticised the move by the lower house of India's parliament to pass the new patents law. It prevents domestic drug manufacturers from making low-cost generic copies of patented drugs.

Campaigners say the move will deprive millions of people around the world of access to cheap life-saving medicines.

"Because India is one of the world's biggest producers of generic drugs, this law will have a severe knock-on effect on many developing countries which depend on imported generic drugs from India," said Samar Verma, regional policy adviser of British charity Oxfam.

The France-based Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) wrote a letter to Sonia Gandhi, president of India's governing Congress party, highlighting its concern. "We are deeply disturbed and concerned that you are failing to listen to the voices of your people who have entrusted you with their welfare," it said.

But the Indian government says it has taken such concerns on board while preparing the bill. "All safeguards have been put in the regime and the government will have enormous powers to deal with any unusual price rise," Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said.

This liberal approach has helped to foster a strong drug manufacturing industry in India for more than three decades. However, the government argues that patent recognition is an essential pre-condition for India's drug industry to further its own drug research and development or attract foreign partners.