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Indian drug-makers have marshalled their resources to counter negative campaigns against them in the US.
Washington-based India First Group (IFG), an advisory firm led by Ron Somers, former head of the US-India Business Council (USIBC), will mobilise support in that nation for affordable medicines manufactured by Indian and US generic companies.
Under the banner of the ‘Coalition for Affordable Care’, the IFG will counter “one of the most anti-Indian, negative advocacy campaigns ever witnessed in the two countries’ history”, the advisory firm said.
The Coalition includes the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance, a platform for large local drug-makers, including Sun Pharmaceuticals, Lupin, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories and Zydus.
Also invited to join the Coalition are “insurers seeking to lower costs, pension funds, large employers, doctors, healthcare professionals — essentially all generations of Americans born after 1930 who now find themselves unable to afford basic healthcare, IFG said.
The move to “set the record straight” from an Indian perspective was precipitated by the severe criticism of the Indian drug industry by sections of the US industry and Government representatives over the past several months. Under fire was India’s implementation of the amended Patents Act, especially after a couple of key legal outcomes went against multinational drug-makers.
The development gains significance as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to visit the US later this year.
With more American baby-boomers requiring access to lower cost, high quality medical treatments and drugs, they join a large chunk of the world’s population — some 5 billion people — who are unable to afford even basic care, said Somers.
High-quality medicines Somers, who resigned as USIBC President in April, said the time has come “to let the truth be known on Capitol Hill, in the halls of government, and across America, that Indian and US manufacturers of generic drugs are producing high quality medicines at a fraction of the price of branded pharmaceuticals”.
“Short-sighted tactics and negative campaigns may have worked to preserve market share for these special interests previously, but history is not on their side,” he added.
This is not a trade coalition, an industry veteran said, adding the Coalition sought to counter, with facts, allegations made against generic medicines.
About a month ago, a US report that grades its trade partners on how they protect intellectual property rights (IPR) had left India’s low-grading unchanged, although it had stopped short of a further downgrade.
IPR involves protecting data collected during research, for instance, and it has been a flashpoint between India and the US. But the criticism of India’s IP environment intensified after a couple of judgments went against multinational drug-makers Novartis and Bayer.
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