7 March 2007 - Green Party Euro-MP Caroline Lucas has launched a bid to defend access to affordable generic life-saving drugs from a drug company’s interpretation of world trade rules.

Dr Lucas has joined forces with four other MEPs from a range of parties across the EU to table a Written Declaration calling on drug company Novartis to drop a legal bid to block the production of cheap life-saving drugs in India.

The Written Declaration – the European Parliament’s equivalent of an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons – calls on Novartis to drop its appeal against India ’s decision to reject its application for a patent on cancer drug Gleevac. The declaration will become the official policy of the parliament if it attracts the signature of half of its members.

Dr Lucas said: “ India produces affordable medicines that are vital to many across the developing world: over half the medicines used for AIDS treatments in developing countries come from India .

If Novartis is successful, a source of affordable life-saving drugs will dry up – condemning millions of the world’s poorest to premature, preventable deaths.

“Novartis simply has no business standing in the way of people’s right to access the medicines they need for survival. International law must put people before profits – the lives of millions of people are at stake!’

At the centre of Novartis case is the World Trade Organisation’s agreement on Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property – or TRIPS – which required India to begin granting patents on drugs in 2005.

The TRIPS agreement, however, includes pro-public health safeguards that countries can implement, and India has merely included some of these in its patent law. The Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health, signed by governments in 2001, reinforced the right of countries to use these safeguards.

Dr Lucas said: “This case matters because it goes to the heart of whether drug patenting laws should prioritise the need of millions or the faceless multinational drug companies.

“If Novartis is successful it, and other drug giants, will make a lot more money by exercising monopoly control on medicines while millions will be left without any drugs at all.”

The Written Declaration, which is co-sponsored by Dr Lucas, Luisa Morgantini, Johann Van Hecke, Kader Arif and Pierre Schapira, has been tabled following a hearing in the European Parliament at which MEPs, campaigners from Medicins Sans Frontiers and Oxfam and representatives of Novartis discussed the implications of the case.

The five MEPs have also written to Novartis CEO Daniel Vasella demanding he drop the case.

In 2006 the European Parliament adopted a resolution recognising India ’s crucial role in supplying affordable medicines to patients in developing countries. It called on the EU ‘To support India in further implementing its intellectual property laws in a manner that will avoid barriers to the production, marketing and export of essential medicines’.

Dr Lucas added: “This Written Declaration isn’t just about potentially saving the lives of millions – it is about giving MEPs an opportunity to assert the pro-poor position they adopted last year.

“I acknowledge the importance of patent rights – but they must not go against the needs of millions of people who desperately need access to affordable drugs.”

 
ENDS

Written Declaration

Medecins Sans Frontiers have organised a petition calling on Novartis to drop the case. So far, it has attracted over 250,000 signatures. Read the petition here.