‘Spurious drugs’ campaign against Indian generics spreads across Africa

India begins diplomatic efforts to solve the issue

Even as a malicious campaign against Indian generic drugs that they are spurious spread across the African continent, the government of India has begun diplomatic efforts to tackle the crisis.

Propaganda, claiming that the Indian generic drugs are spurious drugs and only patented drugs are good for consumption, has been spreading in the African countries, for sometime now.

Some Indian companies who are selling medications in the African countries feel that certain MNCs with vested interests are behind the campaign. These MNCs have also allegedly started a campaign in the African countries confusing them of spurious drugs with counterfeit drugs. While the spurious drugs are substandard drugs, counterfeiting is an issue associated with patenting and trademark.

Prompted by the MNC propaganda, a few of the African countries including Kenya and Uganda have recently come out with certain legislations which seeks to classify drugs patented anywhere in the world as counterfeits.

The Anti-Counterfeit Act, which was passed by Kenyan parliament last December, deems that copies or generic versions of all products having patent protection in Kenya or elsewhere can be considered “counterfeit” in case of an intellectual property dispute with the patent holder.

The definition of `counterfeits’ does not distinguish between mechanical details of intellectual property rights (IPRs), such as trademarks, copyright, patents and data protection from quality control issues related to medicines, which basically revolve around formulation.

The Kenyan definition of what a counterfeit medicine is, as contained in the law, also differs from that of the World health Organisation (WHO), they say.

Meanwhile,  the Indian pharmaceutical industry says, this provision, can be used to outlaw generics at the whim of patent-holders, driving generic-makers out of business in the affected countries.

“Kenya’s Anti-Counterfeit Act will sound the death knell of India’s pharmaceutical exports to African countries as others may follow suit,” said D.G Shah, secretary-general of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) – the conglomerate of India’s blue chip companies that controls over 50 per cent of India’s drugs exports — in a statement.

The provisions in Kenya’s anti-counterfeit law are “contrary to the country’s Intellectual Property Act, 2001, and don’t distinguish between different categories of goods, such as counterfeit trademark goods and pirated copyright products as is done in the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (Trips) protocol of the World Trade Organisation, said Shah.

IPA had reportedly sought diplomatic intervention to have the contentious provisions in the Kenyan law removed or amended.

Following this, the Union commerce ministry has called a meeting of all the Ambassadors and High Commissioners of African countries in India on April 24 to clarify the Indian position on the issue. The meeting is expected to discuss the status of Indian pharma and issues related to improvement in bilateral trade between India and African countries.

DCGI Dr Surinder Singh will make a presentation in the meeting to clarify and also to convince the African countries how the generic drugs are being manufactured in India.

Senior government officials including secretary in the union commerce ministry, GK Pillai and joint secretary Rajiv Kher, major Indian drug exporters to African countries and industry captains will be attending the meeting on April 24 in Delhi.

Analysts say that counterfeit goods, mainly from Asian countries and China, cost the Kenyan economy millions of dollars each year.

Indian officials are worried that apart from Kenya and Uganda, other African countries are also intending to follow the same path which will put the Indian pharma industry in great difficulty as several Indian companies are exporting generic drugs to several African countries.

African countries account for 14 per cent of India’s $8-billion pharmaceutical exports. Kenya is the third largest African market for Indian drugs, many of them generics — copies of patented drugs. The country is estimated to have imported drugs worth more than $70 million last year.

Indian companies major trade in Africa revolves around anti-HIV drugs. The cheaper generic versions of anti-HIV drugs manufactured and supplied by Indian companies are often considered a boon for the HIV/AIDS ravaged African continent.

In late August, a new $32 million pharmaceutical factory owned by India’s Cipla and a local group called Quality Chemicals (Cipla’s local distributor) is expected to start commercial production of ARVs and a treatment for malaria, another big killer throughout sub-Saharan Africa . The factory will have a capacity of 6 million tablets daily when operating full-tilt, or enough to treat some 3 million patients.