Paulsen, others want India to stop ignoring U.S. drug patents

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WASHINGTON ? Minnesota Rep. Erik Paulsen and several other House members met earlier this month with India?s finance minister to deliver a strong message: Stop ?messing with other countries? intellectual property.

Paulsen, a Republican, specifically called out India for refusing to honor a patent for the cancer drug Nexavar produced by Bayer, a multinational company that employs hundreds of workers in Minnesota. In March, Indian authorities upheld a government-ordered ?compulsory license? that let an Indian company produce and sell a generic version of Nexavar without Bayer?s permission.

It was the first time India had issued a compulsory license, which aims to make an expensive Western drug available at affordable cost. Paulsen called it ?the blatant theft of intellectual property.?

The congressman and other ?critics within U.S. political and business communities fear that India?s trade rules signal a trend that will hurt American companies that want to expand in one of the world?s most profitable emerging markets.

?This sets the standard for other countries, and other countries are considering similar measures,? Paulsen said of India?s actions. In addition to the compulsory license, Paulsen said India ?has revoked patents for other drugs? and required domestic production of other products.

Supporters say the rules are necessary to make lifesaving technology affordable. ?It?s not an anti-patent movement,? patent lawyer Subhatosh Majumdar told the Star Tribune in a telephone interview from India. ?It?s about access to drugs for poor people in the Third World.?

Only about 15 percent of the Indian population has health insurance to pay for expensive drugs or medical devices, Majumdar explained. ?The rest must pay by selling property, begging, borrowing or stealing.?

The financial stakes are huge, given India?s 1.27 billion population and growing middle class. One recent estimate predicted that the Indian middle class will grow from 5 percent of the country?s population in 2007 to 40 percent by 2027. With increased wealth comes buying power.

Government data show that trade between the United States and India grew from $5.6 billion in 1990 to $62.9 billion in 2012. Minnesota exported $40 million in manufactured and non-manufactured goods to India in 2001, and by 2012 the amount had increased to $203 million.

Over Bayer?s protests, India allowed marketing of a generic $175-per-month version of Nexavar, destroying what Bayer hoped would be an exclusive, lucrative market for a patent-protected brand name ?product it sold for $5,500 a month. In exchange, Indian officials ordered the generic drugmaker to pay Bayer a licensing fee that amounted to a fraction of what Bayer expected to earn.

Source: http://www.startribune.com/business/217169021.html

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