Compulsory drug patents undermine progress in new medicines, harm the sick, and kill our economic engine.

(Alexandria, VA) — The 60 Plus Association announced today its opposition, in the strongest of terms, to a decision by the Controller of General Patents in India to issue a compulsory license at the request of the Indian company Natco, to allow otherwise infringing manufacturing and sale of the anti-cancer drug Nexavar, a product created and sold by Bayer. Compulsory licenses can be granted by a nation in cases of extreme need or emergency to produce a patented drug.

Said 60 Plus Chairman Jim Martin, “There is strong dispute, however, whether such an emergency currently exists in India for this drug, as well as a concern that India is abusing agreed-upon international obligations. 60 Plus calls on the U.S. Trade Representative to express to India that their granting of compulsory licenses to their domestic drug makers is unacceptable except in the rarest of circumstances. Our nation cannot afford to have the American pharmaceutical industry undermined by copycat drug makers except under the most sincere and necessary humanitarian circumstances.

“Seniors know that the American pharmaceutical industry has been a miracle factory for decades, creating newer and safer medicines for America and the world to the great benefit of millions. But the incentive to risk millions of dollars in research and development for new life-enhancing medicines will be ruined if companies cannot ensure that they will maintain and control the property rights over their own creations.

“Clearly, in our view, with this decision, India is skirting the international agreements that govern compulsory licenses, and setting the stage for a collapse in pharmaceutical innovation and progress that will threaten the health of every American, hitting the elderly especially hard. The economic impact will also be devastating if we allow others to take, without compensation, the fruits of our pharmaceutical industry’s labor. Drug makers employ tens of thousands of hard working Americans, and generate billions in tax revenue.

“It is time to rein in India’s lax standards for issuing compulsory licenses. Our very lives depend on it.”

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