MSF to EU: Stop the spin, the backdoor policies and closed-door negotiations that threaten access to affordable medicines

As negotiations on a European Union-India free trade agreement (FTA) resume in Brussels today, international medical humanitarian organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) is calling on Europe’s highest trade official to halt actions that will dramatically restrict access to affordable generic medicines produced in India.

This is a renewed attack on EU policy by MSF, which last month launched its campaign demanding ‘Europe! HANDS OFF our medicine’,” (The Pharma Letter October 12).

“European Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht is attempting to give Europe’s pharmaceutical industry a backdoor to monopolies that lead to high drug prices and will keep pills out of reach of patients,” said Tido von Schoen-Angerer, director of MSF’s Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines, adding: “India has a patents law that is strict about what does and what doesn’t deserve a patent, but Europe is using dirty legal tricks to get around this law and block cheaper generic medicines.”