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[Brook Baker and Matt Kavanagh] Health GAP submits these comments in response to written and oral submissions made by PhRMA and other trade associations attacking India’s intellectual property regime, particularly its issuance of a compulsory license on a Bayer cancer medicine and the adoption of section 3(d) to the Indian Amended Patents Act and its Supreme Court decision thereunder denying a patent on a Novartis medicine. The referenced submissions by opponents to the India IP regime can be found at http://www.keionline.org/ustr/Special301.

We make the following three comments in opposition to listing India on the Special 301 Watch List:

1. India’s adoption and one-time use of compulsory licensing is TRIPS compliant and does not justify elevation of India on the US’s 2014 Special 301 Watchlist
2. Section 3(d) of the Indian Patents Act is fully legal under the TRIPS Agreement and India’s adoption and use of this provision does not justify elevation of India on the 2014 Special 301 Watchlist.
3. The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and U.S. global AIDS programs are dependent for success on continued, robust Indian generic production of AIDS drugs through continued Indian use of WTO-compliant legal flexibilities. Listing India on the 301 Watch List would undermine President Obama’s declared priority of creating an “AIDS Free Generation,” waste U.S. taxpayer funds, and imperil the PEPFAR program.

Click here for the full response to the PhRMA submission (PDF)