As the Access Campaign launched ‘HANDS OFF OUR MEDICINE’
Patient groups and health activists took to the streets of New Delhi in protest at the ongoing negotiations on a trade deal between India and the European Union.
The concern is that the EU India deal could put the future of affordable life-saving generic drugs produced in India, at risk.
The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) has been under discussion for many years and is now expected to be agreed ahead of a summit between the two partners in early December.
Leena Menghaney works for the Access Campaign in New Delhi.
What is the mood among the people aiming to take part in the demonstration?
The feeling is like ‘do or die’. We want to just peacefully march to be able to explain that our lives are at stake, so it’s grim, it’s determined but we’re determined that we can’t back off from this battle anymore. We need to tell the EC not to do this to patients because it happened 10 years ago when we didn’t have our drugs because they were too expensive and generic medicines didn’t exist. People were dying and none of us want to see that repeated.
These negotiations have been under way for some time, why has the timing gone critical?
People here are very concerned that as the negotiations near conclusion, there are still damaging intellectual property provisions included in the agreement that could put the future of generic medicines at stake, especially generic medicines for HIV treatment. India is the home of many generic medicines manufacturers and this deal could put them out of business.
But it’s not just a problem for India is it?
No. India is in some ways the safe haven, the supply line to developing countries for these affordable quality medicines. Patients in India and patients in other countries, governments, funding bodies, all depend on India to supply the medicines that they need. And this is absolutely crucial because you can’t provide any kind of treatment if you don’t have the right kind of medicines.
So what are you calling on the negotiators to do?
Our demands at this point are quite simple: that the provisions that the EU has put before India on intellectual property be removed from the negotiations, for example one of the provisions the EU is demanding is related to the registration of the generic medicines which is data exclusivity, we want data exclusivity to be removed, and we want other intellectual enforcement provisions to be removed in the negotiations.
What is your message to the European Commission at this point?
Our message is very simple; that the EC backs off; that it takes intellectual property out of the free trade agreements so that we can get our medicines from India. We already have a funding crisis on AIDS medicines. We have reduced funding for AIDS medicines. What you, the EC, is doing is absolutely unethical and therefore they should remove intellectual property provisions. It may mean their drug companies get reduced profits but how can you compare that to a human life is just the question everyone is thinking about the EC at the moment.