Doctors Without Borders", the Geneva-based international humanitarian body, has come down hard on the US's powerful pharmaceutical lobby for pressuring India over its intellectual property laws in disregard of the country's right to implement a patent system to serve its public health needs.
At the ongoing US International Trade Commission hearing on Indian policies, the doctors' body highlighted the importance of India's generic drugs industry to cater to the medical needs of hundreds of millions of poor people.
American industry groups, on the other hand, used the forum to launch a bitter attack on India's trade, investment and industrial policies, complaining of "widespread discrimination" against US exports to India and subjecting US companies to stringent local content norms.
Doctors Without Borders, which works in more than 60 countries to help people afflicted by epidemics, malnutrition, natural disasters and armed conflict, voiced its acute concern about the adverse consequences that the US investigation could have on access to affordable medicines for the poor in India and other developing countries.
"Every country has the right to take steps to increase access to medicines and implement a patent system in line with its public health needs. We strongly object to the pressure exerted by the US on developing countries, including India, for using legal flexibilities to protect public health," said Rohit Malpani, head of policy and analysis at Doctors Without Borders, in his testimony.
The group, which won the Nobel Peace Prize for humanitarian action in 1999, views the US investigation as the "latest and most aggressive effort by members of Congress and pharmaceutical industry to exert pressure on India for intellectual property laws they have deemed anti-business and discriminatory, but which are completely in line with all existing international trade rules".
Referring to the fact that India with its mass production of generic drugs has in a sense become the "pharmacy to the developing world", Malpani said: "losing this 'pharmacy' would be devastating for patients and for treatment providers." He urged the US government to give up its aggressive campaign and instead work with India and other countries to develop new models that promote both innovation and access.
In contrast, some American industry bodies sought to paint India as the villain. The National Manufacturers Association complained of widespread discrimination against US exports to India and called for urgent solutions. linda Dempsey, the group's vice president, alleged that the Indian policies, favouring domestic companies, were "systematically blocking imports and forcing the local production of everything from automobiles, textiles and steel to high-tech, clean energy equipment, medicines and medical devices".
The Association of Clinical Research Organisations (ACRO) said that India's "restrictive" policies were also harming clinical research, stating that US companies could turn to "more hospitable countries in Eastern Europe or China". A representative of the association complained that over the past year, the Indian government has mounted localization barriers by taking "a number of very serious steps to revoke protection on widely-patented biopharmaceutical products".
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), on the other hand, sought to put up a strong defence of India's policies, listing the series of steps over the past decade to liberalise the Foreign Direct Investment regime in India, with FDI now allowed in domestic airlines, mass rapid transport, petroleum, financial services, telecommunications, development of townships and housing, construction, hydrocarbons and retail sectors.