Korean People’s Statement
To: Vishnu Prakash , Ambassador of India to South Korea
To: Tomasz Kozlowski , Ambassador of EU to South Korea
STOP EU-India FTA
We all safeguards for ‘Pharmacy of the World’, against EU-India FTA negotiations
1. EU-India ministerial level meeting supposed to be held in Brussels on Apr 15 will make a decision on how the future of EU-India will be. Should think about how many heads a 10% of world population will be before tapping on a calculator for the balance of trade. The lives of a 10% people of world population will be imperatively influenced by today’s decision.
2. India is called ‘Pharmacy of the World’. The Indian generic occupies up to 20% of total sales volume of world generic drugs and approximately 10% of world population depends on the Indian generic medicines. Especially, 90% out of total generic AIDS medicines provided into more than 120 developing countries are from India where is expected to provide about 50% of world AIDS medicines. Moreover, 50% essential drugs supplied by UNICEF to the developing world are made in India. Many developing countries like Thailand, Lesotho and Zimbabwe have been sustaining their public healthcare system by counting on the Indian generic drugs.
3. EU-India FTA has a destructive provision to shut down ‘Pharmacy of the World’. ISD(Investor-State Dispute Settlement) empowers investors to file a suit against Indian government when the Indian government creates any policies and/or laws which may cause profit damage to European transnational pharmaceutical companies. Back in Apr 1, the Supreme Court of India gave an historical ruling that significant improvement in treatment allows patent eligibility. All patients and activists around the world defended Section 3(d) of Indian Patent law, blocking Patent ‘Ever-Greening’. However, when ISD is adopted, the Section 3(d) will be paralysed. As seen from a real case in Nov 2012, Eli Lilly, transnational pharmaceutical company, asked for arbitration to Canadian government by claiming that they suffered at the very least CDN $100 million worth of a loss by reason of an invalidity decision on the use patent for Strattera, ADHD medicine by the standards of patentability in Canada.
4. Enforcement provisions of Intellectual Property Rights, which will urge Indian Executive and Judiciary to prioritize the enforcement of private patent rights and which will inhibit generic competition. Above all, Border measures will make export of medicines from India to many other developing countries difficult. We already went through the Border measures in 2008. There were at least 17 cases where generic medicines by India, exporting to South America were confiscated in process of transshipment in the Netherlands, Germany and France as per the request by pharmaceutical giants; Sanofi-Aventis, Novartis and Eli Lilly. According to Art 22.3, EU-India Agreement Draft, ‘Provisional and Precautionary Measures’ states ‘In the case of an infringement committed on a commercial scale, the Parties shall ensure that, if the applicant demonstrates circumstances likely to endanger the recovery of damages, the judicial authorities may order the precautionary seizure of the movable and immovable property of the alleged infringer, including the blocking of his/her bank accounts and other assets’. If the seizures are not alleged infringement but “suspicious” infringement and thus properties and assets of the infringer are seized, to transnational pharmaceutical companies, ‘Provisional and Precautionary Measures’ will be a mighty grounds which paralyses export of Indian generic medicines. ACTA compelling the enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights did not win ratification in the European Parliament by protests all over European countries and was thrown out at the end. How absurd it is that the Novel Peace Prize winner of 2012, the EU forces the developing world to abide by the agreements which had been already dumped into the garbage.
5. We all set ourselves up as Safeguards for ‘Pharmacy of the World’. EU-India FTA is not a matter on which EU Cabinet members can make a decision but a critical issue that all patients around the world should decide, who maintain their life with depending on Indian generic medicines. All the safeguards of ‘Pharmacy of the World’ throughout the world will keep moving forward Anti EU-India FTA protests started on 9 Apr staging till 15 Apr. The World should bear their voices in mind!
April 15, 2013
Health Right Network
Intellectual Property Left
Korean Progressive Network Jinbonet
People’s Solidarity for Social Progress
Korean House for International Solidarity (KHIS)
CHANG: Korea Human Rights Research Centre
Seoul Human Rights Film Festival
The Daegu-Gyeongbuk HIV People Self Supporting Community Haemail
Korea leukemia patient Group
Korea Organization For Patient Group
Korea Alliance Defeat AIDS
Mapo Rainbow Residents’ Solidarity
Solidarity for Queer Liberation at Sogang University
Jeju peace & human rights center
Korean Professors Union
Korea Progressive Academy Council
Solidarity for HIV/AIDS Human Rights Nanuri+ [ Korean Pharmacists for Democratic Society/ CHINGUSAI-Korean Gay Men’s Human Rights Group/ Public Pharmaceutical Center/ Solidarity for LGBT Human Rights of Korea(DongInRyun)]
Korean Federation of Medical Groups for Health Rights [ Association of Korea Doctors for Health Rights/ Association of Physicians for Humanism/ Korea Dentists Association for Health Society/ Korea Health and Medical Workers Union/ Korean Pharmacists for Democratic Society]
Na-yeon Kim, Rang, Deokhee Yi, Heesob Nam (Executive Director, OpenNet), Jang HyeYeong, Jang HyeWon, Jang HyeJeong, Wheea Jeong, GwangHun Park, HeonKyu Jin, Myung Hee Cha, Ji young Kim