Reiterating India's concern over the seizure of generics by European authorities in the past, the country has asked African countries to take care while enacting new anti-counterfeit legislations and also extended support to strengthen regulatory frameworks in the African continent.

Taking yet another international forum to raise Indian protest, minister of state for external affairs Preneet Kaur said India stood ready to cooperate with African countries in strengthening their Drug Regulatory Authorities to enhance access to safe and efficacious generic medicines.

"Keeping in view the key role played by cost-effectiveness generic drugs in managing public health in Africa, we also hope that while enacting new anti-counterfeit legislations which are currently under considerations in several African countries, care would be taken to ensure that the availability of genuine, efficacious and affordable generic medicines is not adversely affected," Kaur told the Economics and Social Council special event on Africa and the least developed countries in Geneva.

Almost 95 per cent of WHO essential drugs are generic drugs. India is the largest producer and exporter of generic drugs and over 60 per cent of African generic drug imports come from India. India has also been a reliable and cost-effective source of healthcare products for civil society organisations like MSF and procurement agencies like UNITAID, she said.

"Regrettably, there have been recurring instances in the recent past, where consignments of generic drugs manufactured by developing countries and destined for other developing countries and LDCS, have been seized in transit, at European ports. These drugs are neither counterfeits nor substandard drugs, and are perfectly legitimate generic drugs, in both the country of manufacture and the country of destination. We are concerned that these recurring seizures are creating a negative trend that impairs the access and availability of affordable essential generic drugs in developing countries and LDCs, and runs counter to the Doha Declaration on Public Health by creating barriers to the legitimate trade of generic drugs," the minister said.

"These seizures contravene the concept of 'territoriality' enshrined in the TRIPS Agreement. These widespread and repeated drug seizures not only have an adverse systemic impact on South-South commerce and legitimate trade in generics, but are also counter-productive to the goals of universal access to medicines and improvement of public health services in developing countries and LDCs in Africa and elsewhere. We therefore call upon all countries to respect the concept of 'territoriality' in the TRIPS Agreement and work collectively so as not to hinder critically needed improvements in the realm of global public health," reports reaching here quoted the minister saying.