India and Brazil challenge EU over drug seizures at WTO; Colombian IP moves

Allegations of unfair treatment with regard to pharmaceutical products moving through international trade moved up a step this week, when India and Brazil took a trade dispute against the European Union and the Netherlands to the World Trade Organization, saying their seizures of generic drugs were hurting health care in poor countries and disrupting international trade (The Pharma Letters passim).

India claims the repeated seizures were based on allegations of the infringement of intellectual property rights in the country of transit, even though the generic drugs in question were legal in their countries of origin and destination.

"Our first concern is that intellectual property issues are being raised on drug consignments where they are absolutely not merited and the fact that international transit guarantees are being violated," India's ambassador to the WTO, Ujal Singh Bhatia, told a news conference reported by Reuters and other news services.