The Campaign for Affordable Trastuzumab has expressed grave concern over the intent and purpose of the “Innovation Dialog” being organised in India from November 16-22, 2014 by the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPOA), a US-based group consisting of large corporations and law firms. Several multinational pharma corporations with interests in India are members of the IPOA.
Campaign for Affordable Trastuzumab is a network of treatment activists, patients and public interest lawyers committed to making the breast cancer drug trastuzumab affordable in India.
In a letter to Chief Justice of India Justice H.L. Dattu, Chief Justice of Delhi High Court Justice G Rohini and Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB) Chairman Justice K.N. Basha, the Campaign has also expressed concerns regarding the proposed meeting of IPOA delegation with the IPAB and the High Court of Delhi.
The IPOA is looking to always interfere in intellectual property standards and enforcement in India without a balanced view about where it creates more harm than good, and where other alternatives might be better. It's especially troubling, since there are areas –such as medicines - where over-aggressive use of intellectual property have been most damaging, locking up access to affordable treatment, rather than increasing the kind of competition that drives follow on innovation forward, the letter said.
The agenda of the IPOA event over the next two weeks includes meetings with the IPAB and the Delhi High Court and the offices of the Controller of Patents. The agenda also shows a scheduled visit to the Supreme Court of India. The intent of these meetings is clear – they are blatant attempts to influence the judicial outcomes in cases relating to drug patent disputes that are currently before the courts, the letter further said.
Urging the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to cancel cancel any meetings he might have scheduled with the IPOA delegation, the Campaign in its letter said that the claim that these meetings are being organised to “share experiences and perspectives on intellectual property and practice with patent practitioners and the judiciary of India” is a shameless ruse – the intent is clearly to create an opportunity for multinational pharmaceutical companies to lobby on contentious issues that are taking center stage in the struggle over the interpretation of India's medicines patent law.
Among them is India’s patentability criteria that makes it tougher to get a patent on new forms of existing medicines; any refusal to grant excessive and unwarranted injunctions on claims of patent infringement; and discretion of the Patent Controller to grant a compulsory license to a competitor to bring down the prices of medicines that are patented.
The meetings with the IPAB and the Delhi High Court are blatant attempts to influence the judicial decisions of these institutions with regard to current and future patent disputes. We understand that IPAB will soon be hearing appeals from some IPOA member companies against the rejection of their patent applications by the Indian Patent Office, the Campaign said.
The high courts and in particular the Delhi High Court are handling multiple litigations that demand the balancing of private IP rights with the fundamental rights to life and health enshrined in the Indian Constitution. IP owners are now increasingly using the tactic of asking for stay orders (interim injunctions) against their competitors. This is an area of growing controversy as multinational pharmaceutical companies are pushing for greater IP enforcement regardless of irreparable harm to patients.
The Patent Office is itself hearing and deciding multiple patent applications filed by corporate entities that are members of the IPOA.
Questioning the ethics and propriety of meetings and interactions between the judiciary and the IPOA delegation, the Campaign in its letter said that the stated aim of the IPOA is to promote the case of its member entities, and, is thus no more than a lobbying organization set up by corporate interests to promote their restricted view of intellectual property. It is disquieting that this lobbying organization is seeking to meet members of the judiciary in India which is hearing currently pending matters in which IPOA members are plaintiffs.
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