Left backs off on patent issue

In a virtual climb-down, Left parties on Friday dropped their earlier demand of referring the third Patent (Amendment) Bill to a Parliamentary committee and will submit a note on their suggestions to government in the next few days.

After a two-hour long meeting with defence minister and head of Group of Ministers on the Patents Bill, Pranab Mukherjee, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath and Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal, Left leaders agreed to prepare a detailed note on their suggestions and give it to government in two days.

"They had some apprehensions regarding price rise of pharma products in the product patent regime and we assured them that there were adequate safeguards to prevent such a situation. They will give a detailed note on their suggestions to us in next two days," Nath said.

Nath said the Bill would be brought in the Winter Session of Parliament.

CPM member Sitaram Yechury and S R Pillai, Debabrata Biswas from Forward Bloc, A B Bardhan and D Raja from CPI and Abani Roy from RSP attended the meeting. The Left team was accompanied by former Commerce Secretary S P Shukla.

Left leaders said their main concern was that the prices of pharma products should not be hiked and "all flexibilities and freedom granted in the TRIPS and Doha declaration be utilised to serve this end.

"Since the Bill is still at the formulation stage, we will submit some more suggestions before it is taken up by the Union Cabinet," they said.

In a note sent to the government two weeks ago, the Left parties had suggested that the Bill be referred to the Joint Select Committee or Standing Committee of Parliament, which should solicit views from different sections, interest groups and experts.

Warning against hasty passage of the Bill, the Left leaders said: "The January 1 deadline should not be used as a plea to hasten through the legislation for which the country may have to pay a heavy price later."

The leaders said they wanted the definition of 'Invention' in the Bill to be tightened. They also suggested measures to make use of the compulsory licensing system so that patented products could be made available to the common people at affordable prices.

They said the government, while noting their concerns, assured them at Friday's meeting that the proposed amendment would not lead to any further escalation in drug prices.

The domestic pharma sctor was also competent enough to meet the challenges posed by the multinationals, the government side told the Left leaders.