PHA-Exch> Dutch seizure - updates

[Gopal Dabade]

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http://www.keionline.org/blogs/2009/03/05/ft-seizures-abacavir/

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*FT on Dutch Seizures of Generic Abacavir *

By *James Love* <http://www.keionline.org/blogs/author/James%20Love/>, on
March 5th, 2009

In today’s Financial Times, Andrew Jack, Frances Williams and Michael Steen
report on Dutch seizure of generic Abacavir in transit to Africa:

*http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0a0a0a9e-0928-11de-b8b0-0000779fd2ac.html*<http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0a0a0a9e-0928-11de-b8b0-0000779fd2ac.html>

Dozens of HIV patients have been placed at risk after the Dutch authorities
seized consignments of Indian-made medicines shipped via Schipol airport for
distribution to clinics in Nigeria, a multilateral agency yesterday said.

Officials claimed the drugs were counterfeits and -violated patent rules but
Unitaid, the Geneva-based agency which paid for the medicines, demanded
their release and said the claims were “misleading”.

The action - the latest seizure of drugs shipped via the Netherlands to
developing countries - has highlighted tensions between European Union
legislation and special patent rules on medicines agreed by the World Trade
Organisation, which yesterday offered to intervene in the dispute.

The latest confiscation is particularly embarrassing because the drugs were
paid for by the international donor governments which support Unitaid -
including several EU nations such as France and the UK - and were to be
distributed in Nigeria by the Clinton Foundation established by the former
US president.

Dutch officials insisted the seizure reflected “friction” between EU and WTO
rules.

A 2003 European Council regulation requires the seizure and destruction of
counterfeits or goods violating intellectual property rights from third
countries, even if they were only being shipped via the EU.

James Love of Knowledge Ecology International, an advocacy group that has
helped raise concerns about the seizures, said the EU position was
“indefensible”.

In other documents that KEI has reviewed, this case involved a shipment of
29,880 units of Abacavir from India to the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria, via the
Schipol airport. The company shipping the product was Aurobindo, a well
known and major supplier of Indian generic AIDS drugs to PEPFAR, the Global
Fund and UNITAID.

Abacavir is a relatively expensive second line AIDS treatment, and in Africa
is normally provided to patients who have developed resistance to a less
expensive first line regime. It would be useful to have better information
about this case, but based upon what is known so far, the Dutch Seizures at
a minimum provided a risk of an interrupted supply of the drug to the
patients. If so, this can contribute to further problems of drug resistance,
according to numerous scientific studies on the relationship between
multi-drug resistance and poor compliance involving Abacavir.

As noted in earlier *blogs on this
topic*<http://www.keionline.org/blogs/2009/03/04/kei-on-pascal-lamy/>,
the WTO head Pascal Lamy has now responded to the NGO letter about the
seizures, linking the goods in transit issue to the WTO Doha Declaration on
TRIPS and Public Health, and leaving to door open to WTO mediation if a WTO
member makes a request for such mediation. The WHO Director General Dr.
Margaret Chan has yet speak out on EU and Dutch policies on goods in
transit.

———



*http://www.keionline.org/blogs/2009/03/04/kei-on-pascal-lamy/*

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*KEI Statement on March 4, 2009 letter from Pascal Lamy, regarding Dutch
confiscation of medicines in transit to developing countries. *

By *James Love* <http://www.keionline.org/blogs/author/James%20Love/>, on
March 4th, 2009

Today Pascal Lamy responded to a February 18, 2009 NGO letter that among
other things requested he use his office to mediate the dispute regarding
the European Union policy of seizing generic medicines that are in transit
to developing countries. The original letter and Mr Lamy’s response are
available here:

*
http://www.keionline.org/blogs/2009/03/misc-docs/seizures/WTO_seizures_18feb.pdf
*<http://www.keionline.org/blogs/2009/03/misc-docs/seizures/WTO_seizures_18feb.pdf>
*http://www.keionline.org/misc-docs/seizures/dglamyresponse.pdf*<http://www.keionline.org/misc-docs/seizures/dglamyresponse.pdf>

Statement of James Love, Director, Knowledge Ecology International (
james.love at keionline.org)

KEI sees Lamy’s March 4 response as a positive statement on the topic.

Lamy begins by noting “the issue at stake is certainly very important and
sensitive. As such, it deserves to be adequately addressed so that efforts
to enhance access to medicines are supported and the creation of barriers to
legitimate trade is avoided.” Lamy connects this issue to the Doha
Declaration, which is quite important.

Lamy notes the current bilateral conversations between the EU and Brazil,
and says “I sense that at this stage Article 5 of the DSU concerning
disputes is not of relevance in this case. I nevertheless remain ready to
help Members who require my assistance to find a solution to a disagreement
with other members, if this disagreement were to persist.”

At this point, Lamy has given a signal to both exporting (India and China)
and importing countries (so far we have information about Brazil, Colombia,
Equator, Mexico and Peru) that they could fruitfully request the services of
his office. NGO’s cannot themselves trigger an Article 5 intervention, but
WTO Members can.

Given the stakes, and the fact that the European Union has asked that the
ACTA provide for strict border enforcement of patent rights without
exceptions for legitimate goods in transit, it is important that all
possible efforts are undertaken to ensure that the European Union changes
its current rules and policies on goods in transit.

For more information, contact Malini Aisola (malini.aisola at keionline.org,
+1.202.332.2670) or Thiru Balasubramaniam (thiru at keionline.org,
+41.76.508.0997).




-- 
http://novartisboycott.org/petition

Dr Gopal Dabade,
57, Tejaswinagar,
Dharwad 580 002
Tel 0836-2461722
Cell (0)9448862270
www.jagruti.org
http://aidanindia.wordpress.com/
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