governments and are becoming a thing of the past , MNCs are more and more looking at Investor-State Dispute Settlement ( ISDS ) treaties where in the Investor can directly sue another country without the middleman , its own parent country . Holding Governments to
Ransom :
Sovaldi [ sofosbuvir ] is a drug developed by Gilead Sciences for the treatment of Hepatitis C . It costs $ 1,000 per pill in the United States , with full treatment costing $ 60- 80,000 [ Rs . 42-56 lakhs ] per month . Even though Gilead gave licence to Indian Generic manufactures for sale in lowincome countries , certain middleincome countries , including Ukraine , were excluded from this program even before it patented the drug in these countries . Ukraine is home to over 2 million people infected with Hepatitis C .
Neoliberal policies forced Ukraine to have data exclusivity laws that prevent the registration of a subsequent generic for five years after Gilead version was registered . When Ukraine tried to register a generic version from an Egyptian manufacturer , Gilead challenged the process in the local courts with claims of US $ 800 million [ Rs5600 crores ]. Furthermore , Gilead initiated an investment dispute under the US- Ukraine BIT , bilateral investment treaties . Thus , Ukraine was forced to settle the dispute .
The US cigarette manufacturer , Philipp Morris [ Four Square , Marlboro ], filed cases against Uruguay and later Australia alleging that tobacco warnings on cigarettes or rules for plain packaging amounted to infringements of their tradem arks which are considered to be ‘ investments ’. The company lost in both countries but only after the governments spent millions in legal costs .
Big Pharma is going to the extent of calling patent revocation June - 2021 as expropriation of Property Rights . When Canada revoked Eli Lilly ’ s patents on two drugs – atomoxetine and olanzapine on grounds of failure to prove the ‘ utility ’ of the patented drug , as required under Canada ’ s patent law . Eli Lilly alleged that the patent revocation amounted to an expropriation of property rights , alleging violation of the WTO TRIPS Agreement , NAFTA ’ s intellectual property rules , the Patent Cooperation Treaty and the Paris Convention for the Protection of Intellectual Property . Eli Lilly demanded a compensation of 500 million Canadian dollars for these violations . Eli lost the case . People ’ s movements played a huge role in shaping the judgements .
Novartis threatened Columbia with an investment dispute under the Swiss- Columbian BIT over the government ordered reduction in prices of its cancer drug Imatinib . Abbott demanded the Thai government to block generic versions from its market to cut the cost of its anti-HIV drug Kaletra ( lopinavir / ritonavir ). To bring Thailand to its need it withheld 6 other drugs including one for cancer . This denied Thailand access to Aluvia , the new heat resistant Kaletra [ particularly pertinent for a tropical country such as Thailand ].
After eight long years of lobbying , the Thai government issued compulsory licenses for two antiretroviral drugs , Efavirenz [ developed by Merck ] and lopinavir / ritonavir ( Kaletra ) and for clopidogrel , an anti-clotting agent owned by Sanofi- Aventis .
Thailand encountered intense pressure from the Thai Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association ( PReMA ), the US ambassador and the Swiss ambassador to try and stop the government from issuing these licenses .
The compulsory license for Kaletra alone is predicted to save Thailand as much as Rs . 170 crores a year .
Ranbaxy ’ s generic price for Efavirenz is ( US $ 20 ) per month compared with the Merck price ( US $ 43 ). It allowed health care providers to treat at the same cost an extra 20,000 patients with Efavirenz .
Subsequent to issuing the compulsory license , Merck and Abbott both offered significant price reductions proving that compulsory license can dramatically reduce the price of essential drugs .
Encouraged by Thailand ’ s efforts , the Brazilian government announced that it had taken the first step towards issuing a compulsory license to import Indian generic Efavirenz . The decision came after Efavirenz ’ s manufacturer Merck refused to sell the drug to the Brazilian government at the same price that was offered to the Thai government . Efavirenz is currently used by 75,000 patients in Brazil , and costs the Brazilian government $ 43.8 million a year . The Twist :
In a desperate bid to improve its tarnished public image , Abbott announced its plans to reduce the cost of Kaletra in Thailand and more than 40 low- and low-middleincome countries by more than half . But in most of these countries , Kaletra is not registered , meaning the drug will not be available there . While Thailand has every right to issue Compulsory licence as per W TO , even W HO ’ s head castigated its move . That proves what these institutions are meant for , to work for Capitalism !
The United States has at least 15 separate statutes that are used to permit non-voluntary use of
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