Ahead Of Obama Visit, MSF Warns US Pressure On India Could Impact Access To Medicines For Millions

Ahead of US President Obama’s visit to India, the international medical humanitarian organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres/ Doctors Without Borders (MSF) expressed deep concern over the US government’s heightened efforts  to undermine access to affordable medicines from India—often called the ‘pharmacy of the developing world.’ Millions of people across the globe rely on Indian low-cost generics, just as MSF relies on these to carry out its medical work.

The US has been scaling up pressure on India and increasing visits to the country over the last several months in order to aggressively campaign against India’s patent law. The country’s law sets a high bar for what merits a patent in an effort to prevent abusive pharmaceutical patenting practices, such as ‘evergreening,’ which put profit over public health by blocking production of more affordable generics. The US is pushing for India to adopt intellectual property (IP) measures similar to those common in the US and EU, which would ultimately result in unaffordable medicine prices for both India and the countries that rely on affordable medicines made in India.

“The alarm bells should be going off for the new Indian government,” said Dr. Manica Balasegaram, Executive Director of MSF’s Access Campaign.  “The US is pushing India to play by its rules on intellectual property, which we know will lead to medicines being priced out of reach for millions of people.”...