Another consignment of Indian generic drug has landed in trouble in European airport notwithstanding the international concern and persistent diplomatic attempts in the past against such seizures. With India taking strong exception to the continued attempts by the European Union in this regard, a recent meeting of the WTO witnessed strong resentment from many nations, triggering a fresh but stronger debate on TRIPS and access to medicines.

After the European customs authorities seized as many as 17 consignments of the generic medicines from India enroute to different destinations in developing over the last one year, a consignment of 1.74 million anti-platelet tablets (clopidogrel) from a Mumbai-based firm to Venezuela was stopped by the authorities at the Paris Airport recently, it is learnt. As in the previous cases, the authorities have cited patent violation for the seizure of the drugs from Macleods Pharma also.

Interestingly, this comes even after a series of protests from international organizations, diplomatic initiatives from India and strong resentment from the domestic industry against such measures on `flimsy grounds' on the one hand, and repeated assurances from the European authorities not to repeat such steps on the other hand.

The latest assault on the Indian generics prompted India to take strong stand in the WTO meeting on TRIPS last week and a number of developing countries too backed the stand while the European Union continued to justify its customs regulations, it is learnt. The meeting of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights Council thus witnessed serious concern from many members, sparking debate again on the `systematic' problems in the European regulation on customs (EC 1383/2003).

"We see no guarantee that there will be no seizures of generic drug consignments in the future as long as Regulation 1383/2003 [which allows customs agents to stop goods suspected of any IP infringement, not just trademark infringement] exists in its present form. Underlying the drug seizures is also a deliberate mixing up of the issue of spurious/sub-standard drugs … with IPRs," according to Indian statement at the meeting.

The African group also expressed concern on the inefficacy of the system and the members called for an expeditious solution to the issue and ensure access to medicines. India also suggested holding informal consultations with the interested members to increase the efficacy of the system.

In over the last one year, as many as 17 consignments of generics from India to places like Columbia, Peru, Brazil, Nigeria etc had been seized by the Dutch customs authorities. The seized drugs, which included those for treating AIDS, Alzheimer's, blood pressure, etc, were from drug makers such as Cipla, Aurobindo Pharma and Ind-Swift Laboratories. The latest in the series was seizure of 3.04 million tablets of generic amoxicillin from Dr Reddy's Lab at Frankfurt airport.