The Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC) of the US Chamber of Commerce's continued tirade against India, on the issue of keeping India on the Priority Watch List, has come in for severe criticism from the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) that consists of 20 pharmaceutical companies which collectively account for about 85 percent of private sector investment on pharmaceutical research and development in India.
In its 6th Annual International IP Index released last week, the GIPC of the US Chamber of Commerce has continued its tirade against some developed and the developing countries, including India. The GIPC hopes that “governments will use this Index as a blueprint to further improve their IP ecosystems and grow competitive, knowledge-based economies”.
To this end, the GIPC has sought the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to keep India on the Priority Watch List, notwithstanding significant improvement in the IPR environment and enforcement in India. It has also urged the USTR to name Canada, Korea, and Malaysia as Priority Foreign Countries and to include Japan and 11 other countries on the Priority Watch List with India.
Reiterating its stand taken last year, the IPA termed the GIPC's IP Index as self-serving Index, and said that the GIPC International IP Index is designed to promote interest of innovator pharmaceutical companies.
Highlighting the shortcomings of this Index, the IPA said that it urges maximal patent regimes for all countries and asserts that increasing patent monopolies would drive greater innovation. The evidence does not support this assertion. On the contrary, the view gaining ground is that increasing patent monopolies would actually stifle innovation. Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Laureate, has pointed to the ‘broad consensus’ in the National Academy of Science and the studies that have come out of the National Bureau of Economic Research to draw attention to the negative effects of current U.S. IP policies on innovation.
The GIPC Index proceeds on the flawed assumption that there is a positive correlation between stronger IPR and economic development, irrespective of the stage of development of a country. It completely ignores the implications of differing legal and administrative systems in various countries and plumps for a one-size-fits-all approach in advocating the ‘strongest’ possible IP regime.
IP systems must necessarily strike a balance between patent rights that incentivize innovation with monopolies and the impact of high prices resulting from such monopolies on access to medicines. The GIPC Index brushes aside the recommendations of the U.N. High Level Panel on Access to Medicines and the need for balance.
The GIPC Index has been released at a time when the USTR is conducting a Special 301 Review. India has been put on the Priority Watch List despite it implementing the TRIPS Agreement. Unsurprisingly, PhRMA’s submission to the USTR recommends India’s continuance on the Priority Watch List.