India will soon take up the issue of seizure of drug consignments from the country en route to Brazil and Africa by European authorities, especially the Dutch officials, on the grounds of alleged patent violation recently to the dispute settlement body of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
"We have requested the European authorities to reconsider the decision. They have already released two consignments, but after holding them for months. It is useless to get the drugs back after 90 days. We are waiting for the formal reply from EU on our request and meanwhile preparing ourselves to take the matter to the WTO dispute settlement body," commerce secretary G K Pillai told Pharmabiz.
Though the matter was raised strongly in the international fora and directly with the concerned authorities including Netherlands, India is almost ready to move the case with WTO dispute settlement body as a favourable reply from them is unlikely, sources said. The case will be pushed within a few weeks time as the EU still sticking to its stand.
India is also reportedly not very keen on the offer of the WTO director general to mediate in the matter between the two sides, it is learnt.
India is of the view that EU has breached the provisions of trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights and General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade that covers international trade in goods. No consideration was given that these seized consignments were destined to other countries where there were no patent protections for these drugs. "There was not an iota of evidence that any of these products were likely to be diverted to the European markets, a must as per the TRIPS Agreement for such an action," Pillai said.
"The international legislation on the subject as incorporated in the GATT and TRIPS very clearly brings out the freedom of transit for products and the range of border measures which can be taken in such cases. Even where countries can adopt measures more ambitious than this legislation, the enforcement of such measures has to be adequately influenced by the available evidence. We have brought out the illegality and inconsistencies in the European action," he said.
There were around six reported incidents of seizures of Indian drug consignments at the EU ports. These include HIV/AIDS medicines meant for Nigeria. It was being imported by Clinton Foundation. Clopidogrel bilsulphate (API) from Ind-Swift Laboratories, olanzpine tabs from Cipla, rivastigmine tab from Cipla and losartan from Dr Reddy's Labs were also among the seized consignments in the recent past.