MSF criticizes Swiss pharma aims at upcoming India-EFTA trade talks

On May 30, 2017 (tomorrow), trade talks will resume for the India-EFTA (European Free Trade Association) free trade agreement (FTA) in Liechtenstein, between India and the EFTA countries of Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

Through this deal, according to the international medical humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in an announcement ahead of the meeting, Swiss pharmaceutical corporations are working to erode India’s ability to produce and supply generic medicines for people across the developing world. The proposed provisions in the FTA would promote a strategy that pharmaceutical corporations use to prolong their monopolies, called ‘evergreening.’ The provisions proposed by Swiss negotiators include ‘data exclusivity,’ a form of monopoly via the regulatory system that prevents the marketing of generic formulations, even when a medicine is not patented or no longer patented.