The livelihoods of millions of patients are at risk under the terms of a new trade deal being negotiated by the EU and India which has been hijacked by big business, highlights a new joint report from Corporate Europe Observatory and India FDI.
“Trade Invaders – How big business is driving the EU-India free trade negotiations” includes a case study on the demands of the pharmaceutical industry, describing how Indian generic drug-makers would be obliged to repeat the innovator companies’ costly and time consuming tests because public authorities could no longer rely on their test data to approve the generic drug. This could delay or even prevent the registration of medicines and price competition through generics.
Big Pharma also wants an extension of the standard life of patents from 20 to up to 25 years and enforcement measures including provisions allowing the seizure of products suspected of infringing intellectual property rights at the Indian border, which could hamper legitimate trade in generics.