US Chamber of Commerce slams Indian patent practices

The US Chamber of Commerce has criticised India’s “recent pattern of pharma patent denials”, which it says “are not about access to medicine”.

The chamber’s report, released on February 7, aimed to “shine … a spotlight” on “inadequate and ineffective” IP protection and enforcement in different jurisdictions, and recommended actions for the US government to take.

It highlighted India has having “particular challenges” and designated it as a “Priority Foreign Country”, which makes it subject to investigation.

“Over the last two years, the IP environment in India has deteriorated rapidly,” the report said.

According to the chamber’s International IP Index, which measures the IP environment in 25 countries around the world based on international standards and best practice, India has “the weakest IP environment of all countries”.

It said that India’s policies are “clearly discriminatory”, and laments that other countries including South Africa, Brazil and China are closely monitoring this “Indian IP model”.

It focused on the recent denials of patents on pharmaceutical products that were deemed patentable in other jurisdictions. It referenced one product that was denied by Supreme Court, even though it had been patented in 40 other jurisdictions.

“India’s actions are not about access to medicine,” the report said.

“In many of these cases, the drug maker gave the drug to Indian consumers either free of charge or at a greatly reduced cost. In the case of Glivec, Novartis provided the leukaemia drug to 95 percent of the 16,000 patient population for free, while the remaining 5 percent was heavily subsidised,” it added.

“The annual cost for Glivec generic treatment is approximately $2,100 or three to four times the average annual income in India. Thus, it is actually more expensive for Indian patients to obtain access to these medicines after the patent revocation than it was before.”