Prescription drug prices will be out of reach for millions of poor people living with HIV-AIDS in Africa and elsewhere with disastrous consequences.

In India, more than 300 million people live in poverty. Most of them pay for medicines from their own pockets. Any increase in price of life-saving drugs therefore would have disastrous consequences on poor people's lives in India and in other developing countries.

Developing World Will Suffer

"Because India is one of the world's biggest producers of generic drugs, this law will have a severe knock-on effect on many developing countries which depend on imported generic drugs from India," says Samar Verma, Regional Policy Advisor. Oxfam fears that prices will be out of reach for millions of poor people living with HIV-AIDS in Africa and elsewhere.

Under the agreement on intellectual property at the WTO (TRIPS), India had to introduce amendments to its existing patent act by 1st January 2005. Unfortunately, the Indian government waited until the very last minute and then rushed it through the parliament, leaving no room for democratic debate and consideration of wider public health implications, Oxfam points out.

The root cause for such a restrictive law is the TRIPS agreement, which makes it difficult to override patents to produce generic drugs. However, some of the new law's provisions go beyond TRIPS obligations. For instance, the law makes it impossible to override any newly granted patents for three years. Under TRIPS obligations, this delay would not have been necessary.

TRIPS 'Fundamentally Flawed'

Due to the public outcry from social service organizations and the efforts opposing political parties, marginal improvements have been made to the bill, Oxfam notes. However, its thrust remains overly restrictive with regard to access to medicines.

This negative development could not have occurred in the absence of the TRIPS agreement, says Oxfam, which "proves once and for all that the TRIPS agreement is fundamentally flawed and should be reformed."