The Hindu : Nod for compulsory licensing to make patented drugs

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 31, 2003

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Nod for compulsory licensing to make patented drugs

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI May 30. In a significant breakthrough in the area of public health, the World Health Assembly (WHA) has agreed that countries could compel pharma companies to license their patented drugs for manufacture by other firms in case the countries felt that they were needed to meet a national emergency. The agreement was reached at a meeting of the WHA, which concluded in Geneva recently.

Briefing reporters here today on the deliberations at the meeting, the Union Health Minister, Sushma Swaraj, said the most significant aspect of the decision was that each country would have the right to decide on when to invoke the provisions of compulsory licensing on their own, without reference to anyone or any agency.

Emphasising that the agreement was reached particularly on a strong intervention by India (she had led the Indian delegation at the meeting), Ms. Swaraj said it was especially noteworthy as the U.S. and several other developed countries had initially tried to block the resolution moved in this regard by Brazil on behalf of the developing world.

The WHA meeting, she said, was also a great success for India as there was a general agreement that distinction should be made between traditional systems of medicine which were codified and documented such as ayurveda, siddha, yoga, naturopathy and homeopathy and those which were not. The agreement would pave the way for recognition for genuine systems and at the same time put an end to the problem of ``quackery'' in the name of traditional medicines.

Ms. Swaraj said the Government was in the process of finalising the rules for the implementation of the recently-enacted anti-tobacco Act.

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