Even as the Indian government is taking initiatives to file a case before the 'Dispute Settlement Court' of WTO against the European Union (EU) nations for continuing seizures of Indian generic drugs at EU ports, the Union commerce ministry has asked the exporters to tread cautiously while exporting their products to other developing countries in Africa and South America via EU ports.

The ministry has asked the exporters to consult Patent Facilitation Centre, established by the commerce ministry in association with the department of pharmaceuticals, to avoid problems on patent matters.

The commerce ministry, with the support of department of pharma, had opened a Patents Facilitation Centre at Hyderabad in July last year where two patents analysts are working for the centre. The centre offers, free of cost, a host of IPR related services. The services offered in the centre included general information on patents, patent status of pharmaceutical products in India and other countries, interpretation of search information, search based intellectual property related technology and prior art search, invention mining, patentability opinion, guidance and opinion of IM launch, infringement analysis and opinion and freedom to operate opinions.

The commerce ministry's advisory comes in the wake of continued seizure of Indian drug shipments at EU ports. Even though the Indian government had raised the issue at the WTO's last meeting in March this year, the seizure of Indian drugs destined for other developing countries continued at EU ports. On May 5, a shipment of a generic antibiotic, Amoxicillin, manufactured in India and destined for a least developed country, the Republic of Vanuatu in the Pacific, was seized by customs officials, while in transit through Frankfurt, Germany.

"Several shipments of legitimate genuine exported consignments of generic medicines from India are being detained/seized by various European/US custom authorities alleging as counterfeit drugs / infringement of patents of innovators etc. It is always safe to ensure that exported generic medicines do not infringe patents in the destination country. With the support of Department of Pharmaceuticals, Government of India, Pharmexcil has established as patent cell for giving advices on this subject. All pharma exporters are therefore advised to consult our Patent Facilitation Centre and avoid problems on patent matters," the ministry said.