U.S. punishes India for placing public health before corporate profits

[DreamGypsy]

7. Hop one step further from the link in the OP...

...to the link at the end of the article: See: Obama Administration: Big Pharma Worth More Than Lives of People in India:

There have been two major intellectual property cases in India since USTR's (U.S. Trade Representative’s) last Special 301 list. The first occurred last year, when the Indian government approved the development of an affordable generic alternative to Nexavar, an expensive cancer drug patented in India by the German drugmaker Bayer AG. Bayer was charging more than $5,000 a month for standard doses of the medication — unthinkable in a nation with a per capita income of about $1,410.

A generic version, approved by the Indian government, cost just $157 a month (NB: that's still $1884/year, $474 above per capita income). Under the compulsory license issued by the government, Bayer received a 6 percent royalty on sales of the generic drug.

USTR maintained a low public profile domestically during the hubub that ensued, but other Obama administration officials lashed out at the Indian government, accusing it of violating World Trade Organization treaties.

In a July 2012 hearing, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Deputy Director Teresa Stanek Rea called the decision an “egregious” WTO violation. “This is front and center,” she said. “[We are] trying to stop the granting of further compulsory licenses.”

Compulsory licensing — the granting of a license to produce a generic version of a product — is explicitly protected by WTO treaties to help countries improve public health and ensure access to medicines.

USTR referenced the Nexavar case in its Special 301 Report, objecting to the Indian government decision for saying the country’s law allows a compulsory license on products that are not being manufactured in India three years after they are patented. The India court’s decision, however, primarily focused on Bayer’s failure to meet demand for the medication and the firm’s failure to offer the drug at “reasonably affordable price.”

James Love, director of the nonprofit group Knowledge Ecology International, told HuffPost the Obama administration, by focusing on India’s domestic drug production rules, neglected to admit it was trying to force India to accept a $65,000 annual price for a cancer drug.

Spend a buck to make a buck,
You don't really give a flying fuck
About the people in misery.

Thanks for the post, mm.