Apart from goading the Centre to move the WTO against the recent drug seizures in Europe, the domestic pharma industry is also urging the government to officially question the statistical claims of the European Commission, that project India as a major source of counterfeit drugs. The EC Taxation and Customs Union?s Report on Community Customs Activities on Counterfeit and Piracy states that 34.6 % of the articles (counterfeit medicine) seized were from India.
The often-cited figures by the European Commission form the basis of subsequent reports from Europe that generalise and conclude that India is a major source of counterfeit drugs, according to the industry. For instance, figures from the European Commission form the base of a widely-circulated report from the London-based think tank, International Policy Network, which infers that India and China seem to be the largest producer of fake medicines.
The industry wants the government to seek details from the European Commission on the name of the drug seized, details of the drug manufacturer, the agent or trader who shipped the product from the country, and the agency which received the product in Europe. Additional information should also be sought on the mode of shipment and the quantity of drug seized. It has also been demanded that the exact reasons behind the act of seizure be explained. Revealing the quantity of the drugs seized by European authorities would also clear the doubts of the industry on the size of shipments seized. A part of the industry feels that if European officials have been counting each Internet pharmacy consignment, meant for individual patients separately and equating them with large commercial shipments, is is very likely that the data on counterfeit drugs originating from India would appear exaggerated and would be disproportionately largeer than the actual volume.
?We must ask the European Commission to furnish the evidence behind such a statistical claim. We have requested the commerce ministry to ask for details from the European Commission for evidence behind the claims it has made. The information will help us pin down the culprits in India, if they exist, and could also expose any possible unsubstantiated claims that the European Commission has made,? said DG Shah, secretary-general, Indian Pharma Alliance. A large part of the industry believes that if the government manages to retrieve information from the European Commission on this account, it could prove immensely beneficial in building a case against the seizures in WTO.
?The government should ask for all these details from the European authorities. It should also seek information on whether the drugs were meant for EU or were confiscated in transit at European locations. Most importantly, the government should ask them what these seizures had to do with patent violation issues and if these drugs were spurious,? said PV Appaji, executive director, Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council.
Interestingly, the figures of the European Commission in question which portray India as the second-largest source of counterfeit medicines, also show Switzerland as the largest source of counterfeit drugs, with the country accounting for over 39% of the counterfeit medicines seized. Switzerland remains one of the very few countries in western Europe which is not a part of EU yet. Secondly, Switzerland emerging as the top source of counterfeit drugs in the list lends weight to industry’s doubts that the EC figures do mix up cases related to patent violations under the scope of counterfeit drugs it seized. However, some players in the domestic industry feel that paying too much attention to these statistics isn?t worth the effort. ?We should not take cognizance of these figures. Atleast three sets of credible figures, including those from the health ministry and the WHO, have established that the country is largely free from spurious drug. Why should we need external agencies to validate the same,? asked Daara Patel, secretary-general, Indian Drug Manufacturers? Association.