Press Release: India – European Union Free Trade Agreement – Kills People Living with HIV

 

Finalisation of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and European Union is due at the end of April. Under negotiation since 2009, the agreement will include a number of regulations relating to Intellectual Property Rights. There remains a significant risk that these regulations, if approved, will jeopardise the production of essential &affordable generic medicines for a range of health issues including HIV, cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases. They pose a threat to India's capacity to produce and export generic drugs, drugs which are significantlylower in price than those manufactured by Multi-National Pharmaceutical Companies (patented drugs).

Due to pressure and monitoring from many civil society organizations all over the world, a number of harmful IP protectionclauses have been removed from the agreement. The EU, however, still insists on the inclusion of a number of clauses that will seriously undermine and limit access to generic medicines. One such clause will require the implementation of Intellectual Property Enforcement Measures that will limit the market of generic medicines. It will do so by allowing the seizure of generic medicines from customs and their destruction based on claims of patent infringement. Under the proposed clause, this action can be taking without having to wait for a court decision examining whether the patent infringement claim is justified.

The proposed regulation on Investment Rules, will further jeopardize access to essential and affordable medicines. As pushed for by the EU, this regulation will leave India exposed to legal action by multi-national pharmaceutical companies if the Indian Government if India where to implement domestic investment related policies that these Pharmaceuticalcompany believe infringe on their patent rights.

Due to this situation, we as community of people living with HIV and civil society organization focusing on HIV based in Jakarta, stand up in solidarity for people living with HIV in India, and strongly oppose the threats to access to anti-retroviral drugs that will becaused by India – EU FTA. We demand for European Union to:

1. Cancel all clauses in EU-India FTA negotiation related to Intellectual Property Rights that will jeopardise the access to generic ARV for PLHIV community all over the world.
2. Cease all action and efforts that aim to only benefit multi-national pharmaceutical companies through economic pressure on resource poor countries in bilateral, regional or multilateral agreements.
3. Prove the EU’s commitment to human rights by putting pressure on multi-national pharmaceutical companies based in European Union to reduce the prices of essential medicines in the market.

In Solidarity,

For more information contact:

Nazarudin Latief (FK2N - Coordinator) Telp. +6282111120055 

Aditya Wardhana (Koalisi AIDS Indonesia ) Telp. +6285814714769

#ODHABerhakSehat

Aditya Wardhana

Indonesia AIDS Coalition

Phone: +62 21 70 8888 27

Mobile: +62 858 147 147 69

Skype: awardhana

Website: www.iac.or.id / www.odhaberhaksehat.org

"Promoting transparency, accountability and civil participation on AIDS response"

Attack on Affordable Medicines Continues in EU-India Trade Negotiations

Health groups rally in Delhi as protests spread across the developing world

10 April, 2013, New Delhi­- Thousands of people living with HIV, cancer patient groups & public health activists rallied on the streets of Delhi today calling on the Indian government to reject the EU's demands in the European Union–India Free Trade Agreement (EU–India FTA) negotiations. The protests coincide with the visit of the the Hon’ble Prime Minister to Germany to meet German Chancellor, Dr. Angela Merkel with the FTA at the top of the agenda. On 14-15 April, the Hon’ble Commerce Minister will be in Brussels for ministerial level negotiations to finalise the FTA.

As both sides push for the early conclusion of the FTA , the latest leaks of the negotiating text show that the EU's demands for harmful intellectual property & investment provisions have not stopped. The provisions require India to go beyond its WTO commitments and will have an adverse impact on access to medicines across the developing world.

Mr. Y.K. Sapru of Cancer Patients Aid Association, said “The Supreme Court has kept Section 3(d) alive & intact in a case that has captured global attention & sparked off global debates on the need for developing countries to protect only genuine innovations in medicines & not evergreening. Having failed to get their way at the Supreme Court in the Novartis case, we can expect the EU to push its industry's demands for changes in the Indian law to curb the Indian judiciary.”

Indeed, intellectual property enforcement measures that go beyond the WTO's TRIPS Agreement feature prominently in the leaked text & have been adopted from the Anti-Counterfeit Trade Agreement (ACTA) that was roundly rejected by the European Parliament. The EU is demanding that its companies have the power to demand the freezing of bank accounts & seizure of properties of generic companies on the mere allegation of patent infringement & to drag third parties like treatment providers into litigation. These wide ranging provisions aim to curtail the independence & discretionary powers of Indian Courts that have so far balance patent rights with public interest in court cases.  

Anand Grover, Senior Counsel & Director of Lawyers Collective, said, “the inclusion of these enforcement provisions will undermine the Indian judicial system & deprive people of access to justice. Such provisions which impede fundamental rights such as the right to health & access to medicines threaten to subvert the fundamental tenets of the Constitution of India.”

The EU has also been demanding the inclusion of an investor-state dispute mechanism to allow MNC pharmaceutical companies to sue the Indian government in secret, international arbitration over health policies like drug price control, compulsory licenses & even patent challenges. In 2012, US based MNC, Eli Lilly used this mechanism to file a case against Canada for millions of dollars because the Canadian Supreme Court overturned one of its patents.

Loon Gangte of Delhi Network of Positive People said, “The legal & financial muscle of big pharma is already on display in India as they hire the country's top lawyers & sue the Indian government & patients groups in patent cases around the country. With the Indian Courts holding the Constitution paramount this is a despicable attempt by the Europeans to bypass the Indian Constitution & Indian Courts & move the litigation into secret tribunals overseas on the pretext of investment protection.”

Indian groups are also expressing their apprehensions over the EU's data exclusivity demands. The Indian government has maintained that it will not accept any provisions beyond the TRIPS Agreement. “We are openly challenging the European Commission to make its position on the TRIPS Agreement public. Do they believe TRIPS requires data exclusivity or not,” asked Anand Grover. By insisting that the FTA include the language of the TRIPS Agreement as revealed in the latest leak, Grover apprehends that the European Commission is simply biding its time to raise a dispute on data exclusivity once the FTA has been signed.

Shiba Phurailatpam of Asia-Pacific Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (APN+) said, “The impact of the EU's demands will be felt far beyond India's borders. The majority of people living with HIV in the Asia Pacific are on Indian generics & have been rejoicing that the Indian Supreme Court has upheld Section 3(d) & as a result their access to medicines. We are strongly supporting the Indian government in saying no to the EU's deadly demands. One would think a Nobel peace prize laureate like the EU would know that peoples lives & health are simply not a matter for trade negotiations.”

“The EU is now in FTA negotiations across the region – in Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand & we are urging those governments to stand strong like the Indian government. People across the world are protesting against the EU's trade policies this week. ” he added.

Contacts: Prathibha Siva:+91996805037, Anand Grover: +919899439593, Loon Gangte: +91-9871029514

Cambodian Peoples' Statement on EU-India Free Trade Agreement

To: H.E. Dinesh K. Pataik, Ambassador of the Republic of India in Cambodia

EU-INDIA FREE TRADE AGREEMENT ON GENERIC DRUGS

Phnom Penh, April 9, 2013

Dear H.E Dinesh K. Pataik

We, Cambodian garment workers, sex workers, entertainment workers, people living with HIV, LGBTs, university students, feminists and human right activists from different networks and organisations came together to express our concern about the threat posed by the forthcoming EU-India free trade agreement to the lives of millions of people in Cambodia and many other developing countries across the world. Numerous reports inform us that the FTA negotiation between the EU and India is about to conclude. We are concerned that the EU-India FTA will create another uneven and unequal relation of so-called free trade that more often than not favours richer countries and larger businesses at the expense of poor farmers and workers in developing countries. More importantly, we are particularly alarmed by the severe damage that the forthcoming EU-India FTA may cause to the lives of millions of people in poor countries like Cambodia.

We have been informed about the repeated attempt of the EU to include Intellectual Property Rights provisions that are very likely to undermine the stable supply of affordable life-saving medicines to poorer parts of the world. It is extremely worrisome that, despite assurance made by the Indian government regarding its determination not to include any measures hampering the production and provision of affordable generic medicines, the EU continues to put pressure on the Indian counterpart to accept Data Exclusivity, Intellectual Property Enforcement Measures and Investment Rules, all of which are designed to protect the interests of European pharmaceutical giants by curbing the availability of generic medicines cheaply produced in India. It is apparent that these provisions aim to secure bigger profits for large European pharmaceutical corporations and discourage production of cheap generic medicines in India, which have been saving millions of lives across the world. 

We are saddened that behind the rhetoric of democracy, human rights and freedom the EU is in fact prioritising corporate interests to the lives of millions of people. It is needless to say that those affordable generic drugs are absolutely vital for the lives of millions who otherwise cannot afford expensive treatment of life threatening diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria and HIV-AIDS. Many suffering from such serious diseases would not be able to survive without these generic drugs produced in India. In Cambodia alone, 75,000 people living with HIV rely heavily on generic medicines for their survival. According to the projection of the Cambodia’s National Center for HIV/AIDS (NCHADS), Dermatology and STI, 48,000 out of 75,000 people living with HIV are now on ARVs and Cambodia relies hugely on the generic drugs supported by donors. According to UNAIDS, in 2009 the budget spent of treatment service is about US$15 million per year. We believe that if generic drugs from India made unavailable HIV treatment cost for each Cambodian patient will increase about 15 times from current US$175 to more than US$2,500 a month. Any measures to make such treatment unaffordable to the poor population will pose an imminent threat to the lives of those people and their families including their children.

Having seen the importance of made-in-India generic drugs for the lives of millions, we in no ways can express our frustration about the attempt of EU and European pharmaceutical giants to control the production of these cheap medicines. This must stop right now. It is a true example of putting profits before people’s lives and take advantage of people’s illness for corporate profits. Our lives should not be regarded as a business opportunity. We urge the EU to reconsider its pursuit of intellectual property rights for medicines and to realise that blindly protecting the interests of large European pharmaceutical corporations will lead to nothing but a subtle form of genocide of the poor, their families and children in developing countries across the world.  

WE DEMAND:

1. The EU to stop attempting to introduce measures aiming to undermine the production and distribution of Indian generic drugs essential for the lives of millions of people across the world.

2. The EU to stop using FTA to threaten India and sovereignty of the Indian people.

3. The EU to take PEOPLE before profit.

4. The Indian government to resist such attempts of the EU and by all means continue producing and distributing generic drugs for the welfare of the poor.

5. All governments to discard all kinds of FTAs that affect people in poor countries negatively.

We the Cambodian grassroots people from different networks and organisations again strongly urge the EU and Indian government to think about the long-term consequence of such a trade agreement in order for them not to be remembered as a threat to humanity. Otherwise, they will face a huge pressure from international civil society and people’s movements for human dignity. We will continue to struggle against such an attempt to turn our lives into business opportunities, in solidarity with people of India and other developing countries who deserve decent healthy life as much as anyone in the developed world.

OUR LIVES ARE NOT FOR SALE!

HEALTH CARE IS NOT A COMMODITY!

9 April 2013, endorsed by Cambodian networks and organisations including:

1. Action for Environment and Communities (AEC)

2. Cambodian Prostitute Union (CPU)

3. Cambodian Community of Women Living with HIV (CCW)

4. Cambodian MSM Positive Network (CMPN+)

5. Cambodian Network of Men and Women for Development (CNMWD)

6. Cam-ASEAN

7. Messenger Band (MB)

8. National Network of Entertainment Workers (NNEW)

9. People’s Action for Change

10. Rainbow Community Kampuchea (RoCK)

11. Social Action for Change

12. Women’s Network for Unity (WNU)

13. Worker’s Information Center (WIC)

--
Andrew Hunter
sexwork.asia

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― Hannah Arendt