Dutch Commit Fraud, Piracy Against Public Health

May 21, 2009 (LPAC)--Dutch authorities, in the name of the European Union, have seized several shipments of affordable generic drugs produced by independent Indian pharmaceutical companies as they transited through Holland on their way to developing sector countries. These acts have been carried on the pretext that these are counterfeits of patented drugs, and thus the Dutch are merely enforcing World Trade Organization (WTO) intellectual property rights.

The Dutch are committing fraud, U.S. statesman Lyndon LaRouche charged, because generics are not counterfeits.

The Indian and Brazilian governments, in particular, are on a war-footing against these seizures, which the Indian government has rightly called "acts of piracy." The pharmaceutical cartel has long sought to crush the Indian pharmaceutical companies, which constitute the largest drug-producing capability worldwide, independent of the cartels, which interferes with the cartel's ability to hold the entire world hostage to their usury, both by providing affordable medicines, and by aiding independent capabilities existing in developing sector countries such as Brazil.

On Jan 15 of this year, a shipment of the Indian pharmaceutical company, Dr. Reddy's Lab, of the generic version of Losartan (for treating high blood pressure) was seized in transit in the Netherlands. This shipment, on its way to Brazil, was held by the customs authority at Rotterdam, which said it infringed on the patent of the original drug, Cozaar. The patent for Cozaar in the Netherlands is held by DuPont, while US-based pharma multinational Merck and Co. holds the marketing rights.

Brazil's Ministry of External Affairs has threatened to take the issue up with the WTO, which settles trade disputes between countries. And Brazil, with strong support from India and Bangladesh, at a recent executive board session of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, also succeeded in blocking a controversial resolution backed by the European Commission (EC) and WHO-funded International Medical Product Anti-Counterfeiting Taskforce, or IMPACT. The resolution had been widely criticized for mixing up issues of public health and private intellectual property rights (IPRs) in the context of defining counterfeit drugs.

Similarly, last November, Dutch authorities seized HIV/AIDS medicine manufactured by India's Aurobindo Pharma Ltd, meant for use in Nigeria. The drug, purchased  by the Clinton Foundation through UNITAID (an international facility for purchasing drugs to treat HIV/AIDS), was confiscated at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, on grounds that it contained counterfeit goods and infringed on IPRs. It is the sixth reported incident of an Indian drug firm's exports being seized in transit in Europe for shipments meant for other markets.

Aurobindos abacavir tablets, used in HIV/AIDS treatment after initial medication fails, are not counterfeit, UNITAID said on its website. "They are medicines used in second-line treatment of HIV/AIDS manufactured by Indian company Aurobindo. These medicines have been pre-qualified by the WHO and have received tentative approval by the United States Food and Drug Administration," it said.