NEW DELHI: India has outrightly rejected allegations in a US report about the country being a chief source of counterfeit medicines to the world and said it is an attack on low cost generic drugs — crucial to make healthcare affordable.
The ‘Special 301 Report’ by United States Trade Representative (USTR) slammed India and China as leading sources of counterfeit medicines distributed globally with 20% of all pharmaceutical products sold in the Indian market estimated to be counterfeits.
“We strongly disagree with the observations made by USTR. We do not know the genesis and methodology of their findings. Instead, we view this as opposition to low cost generics and the thriving Indian drug manufacturing industry which is the ‘Pharmacy of the world’,” health secretary Preeti Sudan told TOI.
The USTR report, an annual review of the state of IP protection and enforcement in US trading partners around the world, has again put India on the ‘priority watch list’ for violation of intellectual property rights.
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