Indian pharma asks US to exclude India from list of IPR offenders

The Indian pharmaceutical industry has urged the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), to remove India from its Priority Watch List (PWL) of countries having lax patent laws, which harm interests of the US drug companies.

In a letter to the USTR, the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA),  a grouping of 20 leading drug companies accounting for over 60 per cent of drug exports, said USTR should review its 2016 Special 301 Report and observations on India. The report also alleges that Indian companies deny adequate and effective protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) or deny fair and equitable market access to the US  pharmaceutical industry, which relies on intellectual property protection.

IPA noted that India has improved its IPR environment in the last two years, through dialogue and consultation as well as adoption of the National IPR Policy, quadrupling of patent examiners and consistent judicial enforcement, in accordance with Indian law.

The letter also said that the country does not discriminate between Indian and foreign applicants for patents under the controversial Section 3(d) of the Patent Act, which deals with new forms of all drugs. And said that the country has not granted any compulsory license in 2015 and 2016 or revoked patents under Section 66 of the Indian Patent Act. The country has also come up with a comprehensive IPR policy, that protects interests of the domestic and trade partners, including companies from the US.  

As reported in Business Today this week, a report brought out by the Global Intellectual Property Center (GIPC) of the US industry and business lobby group - The US Chamber of Commerce - had ranked India as 43rd in a 45 country list on the basis of intellectual property (IP) environment.