The Indian Drug Manufacturers Association (IDMA) has suggested that the government should refer the Patents’ third amendment Bill to the specially constituted Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) before introducing the same in the Parliament. The Association, in a letter addressed to the prime minister and other concerned ministries has stressed that the JPC scrutiny would ensure in-depth consideration on the essential requirements and past experiences, so that the crucial points becomes available to Parliament before passing the Bill.

The IDMA suggestion came in the wake of the Union Commerce Ministry’s proposal to introduce the Bill in the Parliament during the current session. In a press release, the association pointed out that the Patents’ Act was made fully TRIPS compatible in all sectors (except “Product Patents” in Pharmaceuticals and Agro-chemicals), through the second amendment, which was passed by Parliament in May 2002 as it went through a detailed scrutiny by an all party Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC). Thus, the task before the Parliament during the third amendment is to introduce “Product Patents” in Pharmaceuticals and Agro-Chemicals before 1st January 2005 as required by TRIPS.

The IDMA release mentioned that in the recent past, there have been several important developments about the TRIPS Agreement as well as objective studies such as the Report of UK Commission on Intellectual Property Rights; UNDP Report on “Making Trade Work for Poor People”; Report of Human Rights Commission, authoritative Reports from Third World Network, Reports from several eminent International Economists, etc.

All these studies have ably suggested that a careful and objective approach needs to be adopted by the developing countries so as to safeguard society's interests, i.e. to ensure that the “Product Patent” system, creating drug product monopolies, also serves the public properly specially in regard to health and nutrition. It is expected that the flexibilities and freedom clarified by the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health as well as the recommendations of these important independent studies are fully incorporated in the Bill, IDMA says.

IDMA recalled that considering the utmost importance of the subject, the Patents (second amendment) Bill was referred to the Joint Parliamentary Committee and that committee made important and major changes in the Bill to safeguard public interests, keeping it TRIPS-compatible.