Right to health activists demand release of the full text of EU-India trade deal

The Working Group on Access to Medicines and Treatment, reacting to the recent conclusion of negotiations for the EU-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA), said that there is no clarity on medical treatment or medicine patent related provisions. It also does not clarify whether the agreement includes measures such as patent term extensions, pharmaceutical data exclusivity, or other forms of market exclusivity for drugs. “This lack of clarity is a serious concern and involves risk of having a direct or indirect impact on access to affordable medicines,” it warned.

The group which works on access to medicines and treatment further said that India has agreed to IP protection and enforcement standards that go beyond the minimum obligations under the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS Agreement). However, when negotiations were relaunched in 2022, the European Union’s proposed IP text explicitly sought patent term extension and data exclusivity protection for pharmaceutical products. 

“In the previous rounds of negotiations particularly during 2007-2013, India had rejected these TRIPS-plus demands following strong opposition from civil society, patent groups, and public health advocates,” the group said.

We urge the Indian Government to clarify and ensure that the final text does not include any TRIPS-plus provisions, particularly patent term extensions, and data exclusivity, which would compromise the availability of affordable medicines. The group has also sought immediate release of the full text of the agreement to allow detailed discussions.