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Journalism of Courage
Over a 16-month period that ended just over a year ago,European Union customs officials seized about 20 shipments of Indian generic drugs as they were passing through various European ports,especially Amsterdam and Hamburg,while going to Africa and Latin America. The reason? European Regulation 1383/2003 concerning customs action against goods suspected of infringing certain intellectual property rights. The customs officials would suspect that a container with medicines inside legal under the intellectual property regime in both the source and destination countries would violate the stronger local patent laws,and they would thus open up and confiscate the shipments.
Indias commerce ministry correctly identified this as an infringement on trade; reports on Saturday suggested that Indian negotiatiors are losing patience with their EU counterparts and are likely to bump the problem up to the World Trade Organisations dispute resolution system.
It is therefore short-sighted of the ministry to tie anti-counterfeiting action to restrictions on Indian generics. The most powerful restriction on Indian generics could well come from domestic legislation in destination countries when the public health problems that come from counterfeiting become simply too big to ignore. And,in Africa,it is quickly getting there: in the past few weeks,Interpol seized 10 tonnes of counterfeit medicines in East Africa alone. Fight illegal seizures,yes; block multilateral anti-counterfeiting action,no.
