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Draft letter to the Prime Minister
Place: Date:
From,
To,
Dr. Manmohan Singh Prime Minister of India Office: PMO, South Block, New Delhi Tel: 23012312, 23013149 Fax: 23016857 Email: pmosb@pmo.nic.in
Dear Mr. Prime Minister,
I / We, (name/s), working as a (designation) with the (company/organisation), heard that the THIRD PATENTS AMENDMENT BILL is being tabled in the winter session of the Parliament. We strongly believe that the Patent (Amendment) Bill in its present form seriously compromises accessibility affordability and availability of medicines and food – three important components of Right to Health and Right to Food. It also compromises the constitutionally guaranteed Right to Life (Article 21). The Common Minimum Programme of UPA government promised to take all steps to ensure availability of life savings drugs at reasonable prices. However, government’s haste to pass the amendment shows that it is moving exactly in the opposite direction.
The draft Bill not only fails to use the flexibility available within the TRIPS Agreement (TRIPS) but also goes beyond TRIPS. In other words, the draft Bill proposes patent protection more than what is required under TRIPS. We believe that draft Bill provisions would give monopoly rights to pharmaceutical companies at the cost of accessibility and availability of drugs under the product patent regime.
Dear Prime Minister, the previous government cold-shouldered public opinion and paid the price. As a government committed to people’s welfare, we request you to listen to people’s voices and address their concerns, before passing the Bill. We strongly demand that the Bill should not be introduced in haste, and the Government should not choose the ordinance route to amend Patents Act. We urge you to make use of the flexibility available under TRIPS to the optimum level.
We strongly demand,
- The Bill should not compromise access to life saving medicines. Instead provisions must be made to guarantee access at affordable prices to them 2. Make use of the flexibility offered by the TRIPS agreement 3. Retain pre-grant opposition 4. No other provisions other than the minimum stipulated by TRIPS 5. No Ordinance on Patent Amendment
Looking forward to your positive response and immediate action in this regard.
Sincerely,
( Name ) (Designation) (Company /organization)