Biotech industry has a new patron

WHY would a company with a turnover of Rs 9,712 crore and profits of Rs 933 crore want a research loan of less than Rs 10 crore from the government? Ask the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), which has become venture capitalist to well-heeled industry. In a novel scheme that turns several concepts on its head, DBT is providing half the project costs, loans at giveaway rates and hand-holding to boot—all to encourage cutting-edge research in agriculture, healthcare and energy. It is also throwing open the expertise of the public sector organisations to companies, some of whom are acknowledged leaders in their field.

New endosulfan ploy

In David and Goliath stand-offs public sympathy—and cheering—is always reserved for the heroic small man who takes on the big bad guy. The David usually represents valour in the face of heavy odds. That is how the Indian pharmaceuticals industry projected itself when it began producing generics medicine at a fraction of the cost of patented drugs from the multinational companies. So when the issue of patent rights of the innovator companies came up, there was huge support for the generics companies turning out life-saving HIV/AIDS drugs from patient groups, lawyers, health activists and politicians.

Unholy smoke!

Most readers might find it difficult to credit what follows. This is a story of how bilateral and multilateral investment treaties are being used to satisfy corporate greed, how large corporations, even those in the unsavoury business of selling cigarettes, can sue countries for passing public health laws intended to protect their citizenry from health hazards and killer diseases.

Predatory EU pacts

After months of prevarication, the European Union has stated publicly that the free trade agreement (FTA) it signs with India will include provisions for data exclusivity because “it is extremely important for research and innovation’’. That’s what European Union ambassador Daniele Smadja told journalists in Delhi on January 21. Smadja’s statement confirms what the leaked documents have shown: that EU is seeking higher standards of intellectual property rights (IPRs) than mandated by the World Trade Organisation’s TRIPS agreement. In other words, TRIPS plus.

The natco-pfizer test

This is set to become a landmark case for the Indian pharmaceutical industry—and for patients. When Natco Pharma of Hyderabad wrote to Pfizer, the world’s largest drugs manufacturer, that it wanted a voluntary licence (VL) to make a low-cost version of its antiretroviral drug maraviroc, it was setting the stage for clarity on how well the compulsory licensing or CL system works in India.

Biodiversity—India’s other scandal

In the season of scandals and wrongdoing, all other frauds have been overshadowed by the gargantuan 2G swindle because it has been accompanied by murky disclosures of how businessmen and politicians subverted every pillar of our democracy. Naturally, everything else pales in comparison. But there are more scary skeletons in our cupboard of scandals, one of which tumbled out barely noticed last month. This relates to the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) and would be difficult for even the best of auditors to put a figure to this scam.

Acta is trade terrorism

It is now final. Two weeks ago, the final text of the Anti- Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), a plurilateral pact ostensibly aimed at stamping out the trade in counterfeit goods, was put out by the cabal of countries that have been negotiating it in secret for the past three years. It was only in April this year that the world got to see the contours of this deliberately deceptive measure when an earlier draft of the agreement was leaked on the Web.

Obama takes first dip

Ambitious projects take time and when they involve something as complex as the sharing of intellectual property rights (IPRs) on lucrative medicines one is prepared for the long haul. But sometimes, when there is political will, things can move pretty fast. Two years after it was set up, a patent pool to make AIDS medicines more accessible to the world’s poor took off recently. The US National Institutes of Health announced it was sharing patents with the Medicines Patent Pool. It was the first to join the patent pool.

Access, yes. Sharing, no

Lobbying, as we now know, sets the agenda for practically everything that governs our lives. No policy is ever made without someone seeking to gain from the most innocuous of programmes and projects. Take something as simple as inoculations. Governments cannot even take a decision on inoculating children against some disease without representations from companies producing the vaccine, high-profile philanthropic trusts, international organisations and healthcare groups in the country. The first and the second have corporate interests to promote—yes, donors, too—and are quite brazen about it, while the third entity often has a hidden agenda. Lobbying almost everywhere follows this pattern.

Rajasthan opens farm gates

IN AN unprecedented step, Rajasthan has entered into memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with seven biotech seed firms, two of them among the largest in the world, to tone up its agriculture. It signals a fundamental shift in the way farming operates in India by giving private companies access to the state’s research facilities to test and market their hybrid seeds and other technologies.